Teagasc

About

Teagasc is a semi-state organisation responsible for providing integrated research, advisory and training services for the agriculture and food industry in Ireland. Our research combines basic and applied investigations into animal and grassland science, crop and environmental sciences, food science and rural economics. Animal research is co-ordinated across three main locations with a full range of facilities that operate from farm scale through to detailed component studies for dairy (Moorepark, close to Cork), beef (Grange, close to Dublin) and sheep (Athenry, close to Galway). Teagasc has considerable experience in leading and participating in EU-funded projects, including animal and grassland science projects: BovINE; SmartCow; GenTORE; SMARTER; DEMETER; SheepNet; EuroSheep and Inno4Grass.

Vision

Teagasc animal research is strongly focused on applied research that tackles the major challenges facing the animal production sector today. We have strong internal and external linkages from our applied research programmes to Knowledge Transfer and education. We also maintain a serious strategic research programme that is focused on being positioned ahead of industry, bringing new technologies and approaches to the problems of tomorrow. We are addressing knowledge deficits in the areas of Animal Breeding, Genetics and Reproduction; Animal Health and Welfare; and Animal Nutrition and Product Quality.

Teagasc in the Animal Task Force

We have a long history of innovation and implementation in the areas of animal breeding, animal fertility, animal health, and ruminant nutrition, working closely with industry. We are particularly active in development of selection indices and implementation of genomic selection for dairy and beef cattle, as well the nutritional and environmental evaluation of grass-based production systems for dairy, beef and sheep. Recent strategic investment has added staff and facilities for molecular biology and bioinformatics with a focus on the identification of biochemical and genetic markers for feed utilization, fertility and health traits.