February 17, 2021 2:39 pm
The Teagasc Virtual Hill Sheep Conference will take place across two evenings this week. The first one takes place this evening, Wednesday, February 17, at 8:00pm.
The second conference is then taking place tomorrow evening at the same time – Thursday, February 18.
A number of topics will be discussed over the two evenings, which include looking at the performance of a hill farm involved in the Better Farm Sheep Programme, breeding, health and monitoring body condition in pregnant ewes.
What’s on the agenda tonight?
Coming up at tonight’s conference, viewers will hear from David McLaughlin from Donegal, who is a participant in the Better Farm Sheep Programme since 2008 and his Teagasc advisor John Cannon. An insight into how the farm has progressed since David joined the programme will be discussed.
Annette Zintl, University College Dublin (UCD)
Annetta is a zoology graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, where she also completed her PhD at the Departments of Zoology and Biochemistry. Following this, she worked for several years as a post-doctoral and Newman fellow in the Veterinary Sciences Centre, University College Dublin. Annetta currently teaches veterinary immunology and parasitology to veterinary medicine and veterinary nursing students as a lecturer in Parasitology and Immunology at the UCD School of Veterinary Sciences in University College Dublin. Her research interests focus on the epidemiology, detection, transmission and control of various parasites with the chief aim of investigating their importance for animal and/or human health in Ireland. Her long-term research interests are common and emerging parasites of livestock and ticks and tick-borne diseases.
th February
Part one of the Virtual Hill Sheep Conference 2021 took place on Wednesday, 17th February at 8pm. Host Dr Philip Creighton, Teagasc Sheep Researcher based in Athenry, was joined by Donegal farmer and Teagasc Better Sheep Programme Participant David McLaughlin, along with his Teagasc Advisor, John Cannon. Also joining the panel was Kevin McDermott from Sheep Ireland.
David McLaughlin together with his Teagasc Advisor, John Cannon, discussed his farm progress during his time as a participant in Teagasc Better Sheep Programme since it began in 2008 which has resulted in the number of lambs reared per ewe joined increasing by 0.3 whilst gross margin improved by €38/ewe.