The 27th European Grassland Federation 2018 general meeting will be hosted in Cork from June 17th to 21st next year.
Michael Creed TD, Minister for Agriculture Food and the Marine met the organising committee in Cork recently, and he welcomed the decision to host the event in Ireland, which attracts major interests in European grassland and is a very prestigious event.
The theme of next year’s event is ‘Sustainable Meat and Milk from grasslands’. The meeting will be organised by Teagasc under the guidance of the European Grassland Federation (EGF).
The general meeting will start on Sunday, 17th June 2018 and continue to Thursday, 21st June.
It will involve a number of conference papers, workshops, master classes, visit to the Animal and Grassland Innovation Centre at Teagasc, Moorepark and five separate farm tours. It will attract a wide range of stakeholders across the European grassland sectors.
The topic next year will be much focussed on generating more funding streams in sustainable production for grassland and creating more awareness around this area.
At the launch, Minister Creed remarked: “The last time the EGF general meeting was in Ireland was 1978, nearly forty years ago. Given that grass is the most important feed for ruminants and is our unique selling point, we as a nation can showcase our strengths in this area to Europe with this major conference. I am also very pleased to be launching this event this year, which is the ‘Year of Sustainable Grassland’”.
The EGF hosts a major conference every two years, with the previous conference held in Trondheim in Norway. The conference is seen as the main forum for discussing grassland research at European level.
Dr Pat Dillon, Head of the Animal & Grassland, Research and Innovation Programme at Teagasc commented: “Ireland is now a leader in grassland technology in Europe. We expect a large number of delegates to experience at first hand the major role grass plays in our ruminant production systems.”
Dr Willy Kessler, from Agroscope in Switzerland who is EGF Secretary, attended the launch, and said: “Ireland has so much to offer delegates in the production and utilisation of grass. The federation is really looking forward to the conference next year and anticipates a great grassland meeting.”
Six major topics will be focussed on at the conference. More details can be sourced at www.egf2018.com.
The conference venue will be Rochestown Park Hotel, Cork City, Ireland.
