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, 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.