The objective of this experiment was to investigate the effect of feeding strategy on milk production, composition and selected processability parameters in the initial stages of lactation. Twenty Holstein Friesian cows were allocated to one of two dietary treatments (n = 10; 7 multiparous and 3 primiparous) in a randomised complete block design for 21 d from day 10 to day 31 post-calving. Treatment 1 (pasture-based system [PBS]) was a pasture/pasture silage-based diet where cows were offered ad libitum grazed pasture or pasture silage (when weather did not permit grazing) plus 3 kg DM/d or 5 kg DM/d concentrate supplementation, respectively. On average, cows grazed pasture for 7.5 d and were fed pasture silage indoors for 13.5 d. Treatment 2 (TMR) was a total mixed ration (TMR) diet made up of concentrate, plus maize silage, pasture silage, beet pulp, soya bean meal and straw. Multiparous cows were blocked on calving date and balanced for parity and milk yield. Primiparous cows were balanced for live weight. Milk attributes pertinent to composition and functionality (e.g., fatty acids and rennet coagulation time [RCT]) were examined over a 21-d experimental period from day 10 to day 31 post-calving. Cows offered PBS tended to have a lower test day milk yield (PBS = 24.2 kg/cow vs. TMR = 26.8 kg/cow, P = 0.09) and a greater milk urea nitrogen (MUN) content compared to TMR (PBS = 0.030 g/100 g milk vs. TMR = 0.013 g/100 g milk, P < 0.001). Most notably, PBS-derived milks had a greater (P < 0.001) concentration of cis-9 trans-11 conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) compared to TMR. In conclusion, milk produced during early lactation from both feeding strategies was suitable for processing. Feeding a TMR compared with ad libitum pasture/pasture silage had no impact on average milk pH, casein concentration or RCT. Cows fed a pasture/pasture silage-based diet produced milk with a desirable RCT for milk processing, while the higher MUN content from cows offered PBS did not impact the processability of milk. Furthermore, milk from cows offered PBS had greater concentrations of cis-9 trans-11 CLA, which may offer human health benefits.

A consumer’s decision to purchase red meat is guided by a combination of many interacting factors including safety, nutrition, sustainability and perception of healthiness along with a variety of sensory characteristics such as colour, marbling, tenderness, juiciness and flavour. Red meat quality is complex and influenced by many intrinsic and extrinsic factors, spanning the chain from breed/genetics through to the final end product with key influences coming from on-farm management and post-mortem processing. As a result of various factors, including consumer demands, the importance of both red meat quality and safety has in recent times come to the fore for the meat industry, with steps to meet these requirements having a large bearing on profitability. Therefore, a critical review of steps which can help control these traits is very important. Accordingly, several processing strategies were proposed at the research and industry level aiming to improve fresh red meat quality traits. This review summarises the current methods applied to improve fresh red meat quality and safety, including the advances in management and prediction tools for carcass and technological and sensory quality traits. These methods are also relevant to the safety and microbiological status of carcasses and meat produced, along with the recent developments in sensory analysis, which aim to understand the sensory properties of red meat and consumers responses. The potential of foodomics approaches is discussed under the topics of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, which help our understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms behind the variation of sensory and technological quality traits and their use for the discovery of putative biomarkers. We further considered the current and emerging sequencing-based methods used to understand microbial community composition of fresh red meat.

Meeting sustainable food production challenges requires efficient ways to manage nutrients and mitigate the losses of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) to water. Future nutrient management therefore requires a clearer understanding of the relative influence of soils, geology, farm practice, landscape and weather on the propensity for nutrients to be lost to water. Within the Agricultural Catchments Programme (ACP), environmental, agronomic and socioeconomic data have been gathered since 2009, using the same experimental methodology in five meso-scale river catchments, and one karst spring zone, covering a range of soils, landscapes and farming systems. The ACP has contributed to a better understanding of nutrient mobilisation and transfer pathways and highlighted the influence of the physical and chemical environment as well as agricultural and meteorological drivers on diffuse nutrient loss to ground and surface waters. The environmental quality standards were breached for N and/or P in some of the catchments, but for different reasons and not always clearly linked to the source pressures within the catchment. There are clearly no one-size-fits-all solutions for mitigation of nutrient losses to water. A better understanding of the underlying processes is required to identify critical source areas, to select mitigation strategies, when to implement them and to build realistic expectations of their impact. Sustainability in an agricultural setting is not confined to environmental issues, but also includes social, economic and innovative aspects. To maximise farmers’ uptake of environmental measures, the actions should encompass all these aspects of sustainability. Integrated knowledge transfer is key.

A genetic improvement programme is a sustainable, cumulative and permanent approach to achieving year-on-year performance gains. Its success is predicated not only on an efficient and effective breeding programme but also on a vision of the traits of importance in the future. A single, industry-owned, centralised database for cattle and sheep has been the foundation for genetic improvement programmes in Ireland. While DNA information has been heralded as a breakthrough for accelerating genetic gain, the basic principles of a successful animal breeding programme still remain the same: (1) a pertinent breeding goal, (2) the appropriate breeding objective to deliver on the breeding goal, (3) an accurate genetic evaluation system, (4) an efficient and effective breeding scheme, and (5) a system to disseminate the elite germplasm to the end user; also of importance is a system for validating the underlying procedures and principles. The constituent traits and their relative emphasis within breeding objectives will continue to be contentious. Traits that will need to be considered more in future ruminant breeding objectives include environmental impact, product quality and animal well-being, including health; while not always explicitly included in Irish breeding objectives for cattle and sheep, indirect improvements for many are expected via the genetic improvement in traits like reproductive performance and survival as well as macro measures of quality such as milk fat and protein concentration and carcass merit. Crucial for the future sustainability of ruminant production systems is the co-evolution of management systems and breeding programmes so that the animal of the future is suited to the most sustainably efficient production system.

In planta growth of Zymoseptoria tritici, causal agent of Septoria tritici blotch of wheat, during the infection process has remained an understudied topic due to the long symptomless latent period before the emergence of fruiting bodies. In this study, we attempted to understand the relationship between in planta growth of Z. tritici relative to the primary components of aggressiveness, i.e., latent period and pycnidia coverage in regard to contrasting host resistance. We tested isolates collected from Ireland against the susceptible cultivar Gallant and cultivar Stigg, which has strong partial resistance. A clear isolate−host interaction effect (F = 3.018; P = 0.005, and F = 6.008; P < 0.001) for latent period and pycnidia coverage, respectively, was identified. Furthermore, during the early infection phase of latency from 5 to 11 days postinoculation (dpi), in planta growth rate of fungal biomass was significantly (F = 30.06; P < 0.001) more affected by host resistance than isolate specificity (F = 1.27; P = 0.27), indicating the importance of host resistance in the early infection phase. In planta Z. tritici growth rates in cultivar Gallant spiked between 11 and 16 dpi followed by a continuous fall onward, whereas in cultivar Stigg it was slowly progressive in nature. From correlation and regression analysis, we found that the in planta growth rate preceding the average latent period of cultivar Gallant has more influence on latency duration and pycnidia production. Likewise, correlation between component of aggressiveness and in planta growth rate of pathogen supports our understanding of aggressiveness to be driven by the pathogen’s multiplication capacity within host tissue.

In the last 60 yr Irish grassland production has increased substantially in no small part due to high-quality fundamental grassland research. Increased production from grassland has arisen from improved understanding (research and practice) of soil and plant nutrition, plant physiology and variety improvement, while improved understanding of feed evaluation, ruminant nutrition, grazing management and silage technology has contributed to increased utilisation of grassland. Annual grass DM production varies from 12.7 to 15.0 t DM/ha based on Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine grass variety trials. More recent data from PastureBase Ireland indicate that average annual grass production (2020) on efficient dairy and dry stock farms is 13.5 and 10.0 t DM/ha, respectively. Ireland is now one of the world leaders in grassland research, particularly in the area of grazing utilisation, the development and use of grassland databases, decision support systems and grass selection indices for grass varieties. Future pasture-based systems must extend beyond food production to deliver additional benefits to farmers, to consumers and the wider society. Future systems will require more robust grazing animals with healthier functional traits, more diverse swards supporting improved animal performance and require fewer fertiliser and chemical inputs, and will support more biodiversity and enhanced carbon storage.

Objective: With increases in the global population, there is a need to identify strategies that increase beef output while maintaining or improving health benefits of beef products. Studies have demonstrated that there are many benefits to human health in response to reducing the dietary n-6 to n-3 ratio. The aim of this study was to characterize the carcass characteristics and brisket muscle fatty acid profile of young dairy bred bulls following dietary supplementation with n-6 or n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). Material and Methods: Holstein-Friesian (n = 43) and Jersey (n = 7) bulls with a mean ± s.e.m. age and bodyweight of 420.1 ± 5.86 days and 382.0 ± 8.94 kg, respectively, were offered a cereal based concentrate diet on an ad libitum basis, fortified with one of three lipid supplements: control (CTL; no supplementary lipid), n-6 PUFA safflower (SO), or n-3 PUFA enriched fish oil (FO). Bulls were individually offered their respective diet for 12 weeks prior to slaughter. Carcass weight, conformation and fat score were recorded at slaughter for all animals, while brisket muscle was collected from 26 randomly selected bulls and lipid profile analysed using GC. Results and Discussion: Total n-3 PUFA concentration was greater for FO than either SO or CTL diets (P < 0.05). Although there was no difference in the muscle total n-6 concentration between diets (P = 0.52), n-6 to n-3 ratio was 3.2 and 3.9 times lower for FO (P < 0.001) than either CTL or SO diets, respectively. Total intake of n-3 PUFA accounted for 72% of the variation in the n-6 to n-3 ratio. Despite the differences in fatty acid profiles, there was no effect of dietary lipid supplementation on carcass weight (P = 0.63), conformation (P = 0.79), or fat score (P = 0.84. Implications and Applications: Beef producers can feed n-6 and/or n-3 PUFA enriched diets that would result in beef having potential health benefits and greater branding potential.

Cleaning of the production environment is vital to ensure the safety and quality of dairy products. Although cleaning with chlorine-based agents is widely adopted, it has been associated with detrimental effects on milk quality and safety, which has garnered increasing interest in chlorine-free cleaning. However, the influence of these methods on the milk microbiota is not well documented. This study investigated the factors that influence the raw milk microbiota, with a focus on the differences when chlorine-based and chlorine-free cleaning of milking equipment are used. Bulk tank raw milk was sampled during three sampling months (April, August, and November), from farms across Ireland selected to capture the use of different cleaning methods, i.e., exclusively chlorine-based (n = 51) and chlorine-free cleaning (n = 92) and farms that used chlorine-free agents for the bulk tank and chlorine-based cleaning agents for the rest of the equipment (n = 28). Shotgun metagenomic analysis revealed the significant influence of seasonal and geographic factors on the bulk tank milk microbiota, indicated by differences in diversity, taxonomic composition, and functional characteristics. Taxonomic and functional profiles of samples collected in November clustered separately from those of samples collected in other months. In contrast, cleaning methods only accounted for 1% of the variation in the bulk tank milk bacterial community, and samples collected from farms using chlorine-based versus chlorine-free cleaning did not differ significantly, suggesting that the chlorine-free approaches used did not negatively impact microbiological quality. This study shows the value of shotgun metagenomics in advancing our knowledge of the raw milk microbiota.

Seed physiology of 15 Eucalyptus species of interest for cut foliage plantations was unknown and therefore evaluated. The viability and vigour of seeds and germination potential of 15 Eucalyptus species was determined by using a tetrazolium (TZ) staining test, and the results were compared to a germination test. In a separate experiment, seeds of each lot were subjected to either 0 or 4-week cold stratification at 4 ± 1 °C to investigate their potential stratification requirement. After stratification, seeds were then allowed to germinate at 22 ± 1 °C with 16 h lighting per day for 36 days. Seed viability and vigour were checked by evaluating % root, cotyledon and first true leaves emergence, and the speed of emergence, in the germination test. The germination percentages varied with the species. Seed stratification with the interaction of seed species lots significantly affected both viability and vigour. The seed viability of the different species ranged from 9 to 100% and 2 to 100%, for the TZ test and germination test, respectively, with a high correlation (R2 = 0.89) between the two. Physiology tests revealed that cold stratification of seed was not required for the 15 species to maximise their germination potential and growth in Irish and British climate.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of genetic merit of the national Irish maternal index and genotype (i.e. beef vs. beef × dairy [BDX]) of beef cows and subsequent performance of their progeny. With the exception that high genetic merit cows produced 0.57 kg more milk and tended to have 0.04 of a lower body condition score (BCS), no significant differences were observed between cows of diverse genetic merit. Differences between contrasting cow genotype were apparent. Beef cows were 50 kg heavier and had a BCS 0.27 greater than BDX cows. The BDX cows produced 1.67 kg more milk and had a greater 24-d submission rate than beef cows. Calves generated from BDX cows were 19 kg heavier at weaning and were worth €51 more than progeny generated from beef cows. Beef cow progeny, however, had 0.77 of a greater conformation score at slaughter than BDX. While differences were observed across cows of different replacement strategies, results from the current study showed that genetic selection for national maternal index had no effect on the overall performance of suckler cows in a pasture-based spring-calving system.