Dr. Ellen Fitzpatrick

Johnstown Castle Research Centre, Teagasc

Ellen completed her PhD which investigated dietary strategies for optimising the efficiency of dairy cow performance at Queen’s University Belfast and Teagasc, Moorepark in 2022.

She currently works as a research technologist at Teagasc Johnstown Castle investigating the interactions between pasture type and animal maturity on animal production performance for dairy calf-to-beef heifer systems.

Her research interests and specialist areas include animal nutrition, grassland management, animal health, the role of legumes in reduced nitrogen fertiliser use, animal production performance and environmental sustainability.

View Ellen’s profile

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Low-input, high-output grass-based dairy-beef heifer systems

At the Beef Conference in November 2023 Dr Ellen Fitzpatrick, Research Technologist at the dairy calf to beef farm gave an update on research results from the farm. 

Summary

• Dairy-beef heifers consuming herbage from perennial ryegrass (PRG)-only swards, PRG + Clover (CLOVER) swards, and multispecies swards (MSS) achieved carcass weights of 243, 250 and 249 kg, at 19.6, 19.2, and 19.2 months of age, respectively.
• Similar herbage production was achieved for all three pasture types, despite a 75 kg/hectare reduction in annual chemical nitrogen (N) application to the CLOVER and MSS treatments.
• Incorporating legumes and herbs into pasture reduces the requirement for chemical fertiliser nitrogen and concentrate supplementation in grassbased dairy-beef heifer systems.

Download the full paper: Low-input high-output grass-based dairy-beef heifer systems (pdf)

Download the presentation: Ellen Fitzpatrick – low input high output dairy beef heifer systems – Presentation (pdf)