More than 1,000 delegates are in Dublin attending the European Association for Animal Production and satellite meetings at University College Dublin.
The EAAP meetings will consist of 39 scientific sessions over the next three days and a half-day of technical tours for delegates who have come from all over the world for this, the 58th annual conference.
The meetings' overall theme is "Sustainable Animal Production - Meeting the Challenges for Quality Food" and scientific programmes cover genetics, nutrition, physiology, management and health and livestock farming systems related to cattle, horse, pig, sheep and goat production.
Specific scientific sessions will cover sustainable animal production biological and productivity aspects related to milk and beef production, maximising forage and pasture use in the diet of herbivores and breeding for robustness in cattle.
Other sessions will cover applications of molecular genetics to breeding programmes, biology and genetics of udder health,genetics and physiology of behaviour in relation to housing and transport and environmental pollution through pig production.
Conference sessions will also cover approaches to livestock farm multifunctionality, understanding and assessing farmers decision making and changes in land use due to CAP reform.
The technical tours will cover horse production in Ireland with visits to RACE and Kildangan Stud; beef production in Ireland at Teagasc beef research centre, Grange; cattle breeding in Ireland by ICBF with visits to two commercial farms in Co Wicklow; and sheep production in Ireland at UCD research farm at Lyons Estate, Newcastle, Co Kildare.
The conference was officially opened last night by John Browne, the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food, who said there had been considerable changes since the conference was last held here in 1989. "Our economy has grown and evolved into what is internationally called 'The Celtic Tiger'. Agriculture is still a very important sector within the Irish economy and it continues to be a very significant contributor to the overall economy," he said.