Speakers

Prof Laurence Shalloo

Head of Programme Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation

Laurence Shalloo, Senior Principal Research Officer and is Head of Animal & Grassland Research and Innovation, Moorepark, Fermoy, Co. Cork.  Laurence is Deputy Director of the SFI/DAFM-funded VistaMilk Research Centre and is an Adjunct Professor at UCC and UCD. The Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation programme is focused on increasing the economic, environmental and social sustainability of Ireland’s animal-based agriculture sector. The key focus of the ruminant based programme sits around maximising the proportion and performance from pasture while reducing inputs and increasing resilience of the systems operated at farm level. A key focus of the programme is focused around having the appropriate genetics for the systems operated whether across dairy, beef and sheep systems. Increasingly there has been increased focus on environmental and social issues within the overall programme. The Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Programme currently has currently 260 staff and 79 post graduate students. Laurence’s own research programme has focused on livestock systems modelling at the farm and processor level, in order to develop innovative pathways to increase economic, environmental and social sustainability.