The annual Teagasc Sheep Conference will take place virtually this year and held across two evenings, starting at 8pm this evening (26 January) and Thursday 28 January with national and international speakers.
In addition, the Zoom webinars will run questions and answers sessions for sheep farmers to expand their understanding on a range of issues relating to the animals.
Hosted by Michael Gottstein, Teagasc Head of Sheep Knowledge Transfer, he added: “As we face into 2021, this is an important opportunity for sheep farmers, and those in the sheep sector, to update their knowledge on a number of key aspects of lowland sheep production. I am particularly looking forward to hearing from our international speakers on their respective topics.”
Tonight’s speakers include: Nicola Fetherstone, a Teagasc Walsh Scholar, who will present her findings comparing Irish versus New Zealand flocks.
The second speaker is Prof Paul Kenyon PHD, Professor in Sheep Husbandry at Massey University, New Zealand andHead of School of Agriculture and Environment. He will present his research on New Zealand feeding guidelines for growing lambs to target live weights on herbage. Prof Kenyon’s paper will also include maximising ewe lamb breeding performance and the management of multiple births.
Thursday’s webinar will be hosted by Damian Costello, Teagasc Sheep Knowledge Transfer Specialist. He will be joined by Áine O-Brien, a Teagasc Post-doctoral Researcher on Sheep Genetics and Genomics and UK vet Ben Shrugnal.
Áine will focus on how farmers can look at reducing labour at lambing; improving lamb vigour and ewe mothering ability through breeding. This will be followed by Ben’s presentation on laryngeal chondritis, an obstructive disease of the upper respiratory tract in sheep, more commonly known as Texel Throat.
Register now at: www.teagasc.ie/sheepcon21
LSL News.