What advice is there for farmers at this stage, now that they know that there could be an, a possible fodder deficit next winter? What are the options that you're discussing with the farmers?

Yeah.

Um, we had a, a good meeting of the program farmers last night in Kilkenny, and I suppose there, there was a few there from the west of the country and it, it's very, very different up there, up around West Roscommon side heading for Mayo and up around there.

You know, t- things are... things are moving along not too bad and there's silage and there's a bit of grass there.

It's, um...

It's when you kind of go from Limerick across to, I suppose, Dublin or, or Louth and head southeast of that, that that's where the real trouble is.

Um, but I suppose, um, in, in the southeast where the, the main...

Alan, I suppose from your perspective as DairyB500 program manager, what makes James' system a good example of a good dairy calf to beef system from a both profitability and production point of view, I suppose, and for farmers to attend and see James' system?

Alan, from working with the Dairy Beef 500 program farms, you know, what factors should be considered when choosing a dairy beef production system?

I think that the biggest stumbling block we often see is the housing.

Having the correct housing in place for when you start to purchase these calves, especially if it's a change of system that's coming onto the farm.

So if you are in, we'll say, dry stock production, such as buying stores and finishing them or whatever it is, or you were in suckler cows, selling weanlings or whatever it is, you may not exactly have a shed that may be suitable to rear calves.

And we do see a lot of farmers that just jump into that system, end up with a lot of trouble on the health side of things in the rearing phase with calves.

And that can be quite off-putting, especially if you're new to the game.

So ensuring that your housing, I suppose, has enough space, it's got plenty of ventilation, adequate drainage, good feeding facilities to make it as simple as possible are very important, I think.

From the farmers that's working with you in the Dairy Bee 500 programme, what do you see as the key factors in a successful finishing management system?