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UCD Lyons Dairy Education and Research Facility

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The UCD Lyons Dairy Education and Research Facility is an exciting €2.3m partnership between academic and industry at UCD Lyons Estate. Consisting of 7 leading agri-food organisations, this world class industry led research centre will investigate innovative models of milk production and make an important contribution developing and educating leaders for the Irish Dairy sector.

The UCD Lyons Dairy Research and Education Facility will support the development of dairy products and services and provide a showcase for the very best of Irish dairy technology.

Industry stakeholders connected with this significant project include: (opens in a new window)Dairymaster, (opens in a new window)Devenish Nutrition, (opens in a new window)FBD, (opens in a new window)Glanbia, (opens in a new window)Irish Holstein Friesian Association, (opens in a new window)Munster Cattle Breeding Group and (opens in a new window)Progressive Genetics.

As a result of the UCD Lyons Dairy Research and Education Facility, the dairy enterprise will have an increased capacity for 200 cows and will support new and existing research programmes in dairy production including genetics, nutrition and herd health management. The herd will be comprised of spring calving and autumn calving groups and the emphasis initially will be on the role of supplementation in a grass based system to maximize production and improve milk quality and efficiencies throughout the season. The farm will also investigate novel grass based production systems suited to an Irish environment.

The research outputs from the new facility will be made available through academic publications and through interaction with key stakeholders in the Irish dairy sector. The investment at Lyons Estate will also provide excellent new facilities for teaching students in Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine, and with conducting research at the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science and UCD School of Veterinary Medicine.

The industry group involved with this project have recently received a significant Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnership Project valued at €1m, demonstrating already the potential of this exciting partnership. Other research funding received include €1.2M from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for the NutriGen progect.

Lyons Dairy Herd

The UCD Lyons Farm has a herd of 200 dairy cows that is split into two main herds. The herd-1 is a split calving herd of 140 cows, that comprises of 80 spring calving cows and 60 autumn calving cows. This herd supports new and existing research programmes in dairy production including genetics, nutrition and herd health management.

The herd-2 is a Production Systems Research herd comprising of 60 spring calving cows that aims to investigate the feasibility of a high input/output spring calving milk production system for farmers on a fixed land bank.

Dairy Research Projects

‌Background:

It is widely recognised that grass-based systems offer a competitive advantage and will predominate in Ireland. However, grazing systems that have been developed to utilise large quantities of grazed grass have in the main been based on low output per cow. In this scenario, high levels of profitability are possible through avid cost control and comparatively high stocking rates for grazing systems. There are now reasons to consider the development of grazing systems that are based on high-output per cow. These reasons include

(i) concerns about increasing dairy cow numbers and environmental emissions,

(ii) facilitating farm expansion post-EU milk quota removal for land limited and fragmented farms,

(iii) lack of available skilled labour on farms to deal with expanding animal numbers.

The rationale for this research is that a high output grass-based spring milk production system can be profitable when built on a foundation of good grassland management and meeting both milk and fertility targets and has a place in a sustainable Irish dairy industry.

Cows in the Lyons Systems Research Herd grazing

To view and download the 3 Year Report on Lyons Systems Dairy Herd

To view Lyons Systems Research Herd Weekly Update Notes - click here

Acknowledgements

This project is funded by Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnership Programme which is co-funded by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund 2014-2020. Funding for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow was received from Teagasc. Industry stakeholders connected with this significant project include Dairymaster, Devenish Nutrition, FBD, Glanbia, Irish Friesian Holstein Association, Munster Cattle Breeding Group and Progressive Genetics. ‌ Three-year new research work for Systems Research Herd is now funded by Dairy Research Ireland until Dec. 2021.

Logos of the Lyons dairy systems herd research sponsors

Contact us:

Prof. Finbar Mulligan
UCD School of Veterinary Medicine
01-716 6251
(opens in a new window)finbar.mulligan@ucd.ie

Prof. Karina Pierce
UCD School of Agriculture & Food Science
01-716 7774
(opens in a new window)karina.pierce@ucd.ie

Dr. Bridget Lynch
UCD School of Agriculture & Food Science
01-716 7769
(opens in a new window)Bridget.lynch@ucd.ie

Contact UCD Lyons Farm

UCD Lyons Farm, Lyons Estate, Celbridge, Naas, Co. Kildare, W23 ENY2
T: +353 1 716 4272 | E: lyonsfarm@ucd.ie | Location Map(opens in a new window)