Mayo smart sheep farming open day

SHEEP equipment and technology company Cotter Agritech, together with expert speakers from Sheep Ireland, the Irish Farmers Journal, Teagasc and the Easycare Sheep Society, are running an open day in Louisburgh on May 22. The theme is 'Techniques, technology and equipment to tackle problems on a modern sheep farm'.

The open day will feature a farm walk, an in-depth look at the farm's brand new handling facilities, a showcase of the latest sheep equipment and technology from Cotter Agritech, interactive speaker sessions on Anthelmintic resistance and breeding for a better bottom line, and a number of trade stands.

The open day will take place at Padraig Frasier’s farm in Louisburgh (Eircode: F28 YH66). Padraig runs a smaller operation typical of the west of Ireland, with a flock of 150 Mayo blackface ewes who are crossbred onto Texel and Suffolk rams.

Padraig recently made his first major investment into handling facilities, putting in a Cotter crate system to reduce labour and hardship.

The event will start with a farm walk where John Noonan (Teagasc) will chat with the farmer about 2024 lambing performance, flock management, farm KPIs, grassland management, what’s working well and what are the challenges, and future plans.

Participants will then move to the handling area to see the farmers new facilities, where the Cotter crate sheep and lamb handler will be demonstrated live.

Farmers will also see the first public showing of the Cotter crate mobile models, which are road-legal trailer mounted crates complete with a mobile yard to suit farmers with fragmented land blocks. The company will also showcase the automed automatic dosing gun product for the first time.

There will be a presentation on how to maximise the TAMS grants available for investment in sheep handling equipment and yard design options.

Other presentations will include ‘Overcoming drench resistance’, delivered by Dr. Steven Johnston, a farmer and sheep advisor running Easycare sheep who struggled with diagnosed drench resistance. Steven will share his story, results of using the SmartWorm technology for the last few years (50% cut in drench use) and how he is using data to breed for resistance to parasites.

An expert from Sheep Ireland will explain what performance recording can deliver to farmers bottom line.

Full information and to register here - https://www.cotteragritech.com/pages/2024-summer-open-day-series - or you can call (086) 3301490.

All are welcome to attend.