He said farmers are the key in terms of delivering on environment sustainability but their economic sustainability is critical. The Green Deal makes it clear that farmers earn only half of the average EU worker. He said, “Farmers cannot be green if they are always in the red.” 

One of the priorities for BovINE in 2021 will be to select farms and research organisations where some of the identified research innovations and good practices can be demonstrated to Irish farmers to show how they can be practically implemented for the benefit of farmers on the ground. Some of the issues we will be demonstrating will include: squeeze technique for reviving newborn weak calves, future contracts and forward contracts, on-farm health assessment with user-friendly software, automated weighing, predicting beef palatability and reducing methane emissions. 

In addition, Bovine has already identified priority topics that need addressing in 2021 including diverse issues such as: Initiatives to improve beef image, simple tools to measure animal welfare standards on beef farms, dietary strategies that affect meat quality and schemes that can reward beef farmers meeting environmental deliverables. 

By driving effective cooperation between beef farmers and researchers across Europe, BovINE will form a transnational ecosystem to stimulate knowledge exchange at an international level, thus boosting the economic viability and sustainability of the European beef sector.  

The BovINE Network in Ireland is keen to link up with other EU supported projects in the beef sector and has met with a number of project leaders including the Devenish Heartland team working on health, environmental, agriculture, rural development, training network for land management in Dowth Co Meath and the Inishowen Uplands Farmers Project working on high nature value farming in Co Donegal.