Get more from a Teagasc farm walk by spending 30 minutes with AI first

::: official-advice-banner Farm walks are organised by Teagasc advisors and discussion groups. This article helps you prepare for and follow up on those events — it doesn't replace the advice you'll receive on the day. Always verify scheme details and technical recommendations with your Teagasc advisor or DAFM. :::

You're heading to a Teagasc farm walk in a few days. Good decision — the discussion group farm walks are some of the most practical farmer education available in Ireland. They're free, they're local, and the farmer hosting is usually doing something worth seeing.

The problem is most people show up, walk around, nod a lot, and drive home. Two weeks later they can't remember what the stocking rate was or why the host was getting better weanling weights. The information disappears because there was no structure around it.

Spending 30 minutes with an AI tool before you go changes that. Not because AI knows your farm better than your Teagasc advisor — it doesn't. But it's very good at helping you organise your own thinking, pull relevant benchmarks, and write questions you actually want answered.

What a Teagasc farm walk covers

Most beef farm walks run for 2–3 hours and cover four or five topics: grassland management, stocking rate, housing, performance data, and often a scheme or two the host has enrolled in. The Teagasc advisor facilitates, the host farmer explains what they're doing, and the group asks questions.

The farmers who get the most from it are the ones who arrive knowing what they want to compare against. If you know your own figures, you can hear the host's figures and immediately ask the useful question — not "what stocking rate are you running?" but "you're running 2.1 LU/ha with 80 sucklers — how are you managing late-season grass covers to hit that?"

That's the difference between a good farm walk and a great one. AI helps you get your own numbers in order before you go.

Step-by-step: 30 minutes at the kitchen table

Step 1: Pull your own figures together (10 minutes)

Before you open any AI tool, gather what you have. For a suckler beef operation, you want:

• Current stocking rate (livestock units per hectare)
• Calving percentage last season
• Weanling weights at weaning (average kg)
• Any current grass covers if you're measuring
• Your current ACRES or BISS payment rate, if relevant

You don't need all of this. Whatever you have is fine. Even rough numbers give the AI something to work with.

If you use ICBF HerdPlus, log in and download your performance summary. It takes five minutes and gives you calving rate, mortality, weaning weights, and cow-to-bull ratio — all in one place.

Step 2: Ask AI to benchmark your figures (10 minutes)

Paste your numbers into your AI tool of choice and ask it to compare them against Irish suckler beef targets. A useful prompt:

"I run 80 suckler cows on a beef farm in Roscommon. My calving rate last year was 88%. Average weanling weight at 200 days was 240kg. Stocking rate is 1.8 LU/ha. Can you compare these against Teagasc suckler performance targets and tell me where I'm above, at, or below average?"

A good AI tool will tell you that Teagasc targets for suckler farms typically include a calving rate above 90%, a 200-day weight above 250kg for continental-cross weanlings, and a stocking rate that varies by soil type but often runs 1.8–2.2 LU/ha on average ground. It will flag which of your figures are close to target and which are further off.

That's not a diagnosis. It's a starting point for your questions on the day.

Why this matters: Teagasc's own analysis of suckler farm data through the Signpost Programme shows that the top 25% of suckler farms achieve calving rates above 93% and 200-day weights above 270kg. The gap between average and top-quarter performance is worth an estimated €150–200 per cow per year in additional output. Knowing where you sit tells you which part of the walk to pay closest attention to.

Step 3: Generate your question list (5 minutes)

This is the most underrated step. Ask the AI:

"I'm attending a Teagasc suckler beef farm walk next week. The host has 100 sucklers on 55 hectares, is enrolled in ACRES, and is achieving 92% calving rate. I want to improve my own calving percentage and weanling weights. Write me 8 specific questions I should ask on the day."

The AI will produce questions like:

• What bull breeding values are you selecting for, and what impact have you seen on weanling weights?
• How are you managing body condition score at weaning and pre-calving?
• What calving interval are you targeting, and how do you manage late calvers?
• How does your ACRES payment interact with your stocking rate decisions?

These are the questions that prompt a real conversation rather than a surface answer. Print them or screenshot them before you leave the house.

Step 4: Set up your note template (5 minutes)

Ask the AI to generate a simple note template you can use on the day:

"Give me a one-page notes template for a suckler beef farm walk. I want to record the host's key figures, compare them to my own, note 3 things to try and 3 questions for my Teagasc advisor afterward."

You'll get a clean structure you can use on your phone or print out. Taking structured notes on the day — even rough ones — means the information doesn't evaporate on the drive home.

After the walk: turn notes into an action plan (10 minutes)

Most farm walks lose their value in the week after they happen. You had good intentions. Life got busy. The notebook went in the glove box.

Give your notes to an AI tool and ask it to do the follow-up work:

"Here are my notes from a Teagasc suckler farm walk. The host is getting better calving rates through earlier bull removal and tighter scanning. He's also seeing better weanling weights by giving creep feed from 6 weeks. Can you turn these into a 3-point action plan I can discuss with my Teagasc advisor, with rough cost estimates for each?"

For the creep feeding point, a good AI response will note that creep feed typically costs €400–€500 per tonne, and at 1–1.5kg/day for 6–8 weeks, you're looking at roughly €25–35 per calf. Against an expected weanling weight improvement of 10–15kg, that's worth examining at current calf prices.

Those are the kind of specific, costed questions your Teagasc advisor can actually engage with. It moves the conversation from "I heard creep feeding is good" to "I want to understand whether creep feeding pays at current margins on my system."

What it costs

The AI tools are free. Every major AI assistant offers a free tier that handles this kind of task easily — no subscription needed.

Your ICBF HerdPlus account is free for basic performance data. PastureBase Ireland through pasturebase.teagasc.ie is free if you're measuring grass covers.

Teagasc farm walks are free to attend. Discussion group membership typically costs €200–€400 per year, depending on the group and region — and that covers 8–12 events plus advisor access. If you're not in a discussion group, ask your local Teagasc office about joining one.

The time cost of this preparation is 30 minutes before the walk and 10 minutes after. Against a 2–3 hour event you've already committed to attending, that's a small investment for a significantly better return on the day.

Where to get help

• Teagasc discussion groups and farm walks — find your local events at teagasc.ie. Your local Teagasc advisor can also tell you what's coming up in your area.
• ICBF HerdPlus at icbf.com — download your herd performance summary before the walk. Free to access.
• PastureBase Ireland at pasturebase.teagasc.ie — if you're measuring grass, your covers and growth rates are here.
• Your Teagasc advisor — the person to bring your action plan to after the walk. They can sense-check what you heard on the day against your specific farm situation.

Common questions

Do I need to know my figures exactly before I do this?

No. Rough numbers are fine. If you know you have 80 cows, a calving rate somewhere around 88%, and weanlings that could be heavier, that's enough to get useful benchmarking. The AI is helping you organise your thinking, not audit your records.

Will the AI give me wrong information about Teagasc targets?

It can. AI tools can misquote or slightly mis-state benchmarks — that's why you use them to generate questions and structure, not to get the definitive answer. If an AI tells you a Teagasc target figure and it sounds off, ask your advisor to confirm. The AI's job here is to help you ask better questions, not to replace the advisor who actually knows your farm.

I'm already in a discussion group. Will this still help?

Yes — especially the post-walk step. Discussion group members often get more from farm walks because they know the host and the context. But even experienced group members tend to lose the detail a few days after the walk. The 10-minute follow-up routine is worth doing regardless of how long you've been in the group.