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Focus on Farmers Virtual Farm Walks & Discussions
A series of virtual farm walks & discussion with two leading beef farmers (Sam Chesney, County Down and James Evans, Shropshire) will take place fortnightly at 8pm starting on 10th August 2020. Purpose: To establish a dynamic digital forum to advance education amongst livestock farmers with a focus on grassland agriculture and key factors of consumer interest in livestock products. Theme: Connected pasture management Week 1 - 10th August - Farm ambassador introductions Week 2 - 24th August - Optimising beef productivity from grassland Week 3 - 7th September - Farm animal...

Four AgriSearch Led EIP Applications Underway
Grazing MSS
AgriSearch has secured stage one funding for four projects based in Northern Ireland under the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability (EIP). The EIP scheme aims to bring expert advisers, researchers and businesses together with farmers to tackle the challenges of farming through innovation. The projects will see AgriSearch working in tandem with farmers to consider how practical solutions may be developed to address four issues: anthelmintic resistance; improving the reproductive efficiency of suckler herds; controlling leatherjackets...

AGRISEARCH ROBOTIC MILKING GROUP GOES VIRTUAL
AgriSearch’s Robotic Milking Discussion Group has gone virtual with its first meeting with the 23 participating farmers held online. This group will contribute to an Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute (AFBI) research project entitled ‘The role of robotic milking for NI dairying’. The project is a four-year programme of work funded by DAERA and AgriSearch. The Discussion Group contributes to the delivery of the project’s on-farm work streams, aiming to benchmark and improve performance of robotics on commercial farms. AgriSearch advertised for participants in early 2020. 23 farmers were...

Managing Grass and Forages to Maximise Sheep Production
  On Wednesday 8th July at 7.30pm CIEL (Centre for Excellence in Livestock) will be hosting their first joint webinar with the National Sheep Association (NSA). The webinar will explore how sheep farmers can increase profit by effectively managing feed resources they have in the form of pasture, focussing on maximising the utilisation and quality of pasture. With the challenges faced in balancing the goals of farm profitability, environmental impact and product quality, managing pasture well can deliver increased returns for relatively little cost.   The event will be jointly hosted by...

Farmers tune in to new podcast for advice on managing grass
  A new farming podcast has been capturing the attention of Northern Ireland farmers during Covid-19 restrictions. The GrassCheck podcast is an adaption of its popular grass growth forecast, and is produced in-house by AgriSearch’s General Manager Jason Rankin. Weekly GrassCheck forecasts have been complied by AgriSearch with the support of AFBI, CAFRE and 40 GrassCheck farmers for many years. They provide up-to-date grass information to assist farmers with grassland management decisions and support improvements in grass utilisation on livestock farms. At this time of year AgriSearch would...