WHERE WE BEGAN.
IRDBF held its inaugural meeting and conference in June 2016 at Hamar Norway, hosted by Geno. Forty six delegates from seventeen countries gathered for this important occasion. A set of guidelines for objectives, structure, management, and member responsibilities was adopted.
A governing board of five members was established, three from Europe and two from the rest of the world. The board’s first task is to establish a Constitution for the federation, financial matters, social media presence, and membership base.
Official speakers at the conference presented information about genomic selection and statistical performance of the Norwegian Red Cow; cross breeding also featured. Another topic of discussion was improving the extender used in frozen semen storage. An interesting segment was economic and welfare challenges of dairy farming. Another segment analysed worldwide cost of milk production. A most interesting presentation on the work being done on feed use efficiency was also given, and was labelled the next big issue to follow health traits in dairy cow breeding.
The conference was largely held in the pretty regional city of Hamar on Lake Mjosa. The tours continued by road to Trondheim on the west coast of Norway, for some additional farm visits, and cultural experiences.
The journey continued successfully in 2019 in Australia!
"Bringing Red Breeds Together"
Click here to access the conference video.
The Australian Red Dairy Breed hosted a highly successful event consisting of a full tour over eight days commencing in Adelaide South Australia, continuing to Mount Gambier South Australia for the main conference event, and then along the Great Ocean Road of Victoria, to visit the Platinum Sponsor Genetics Australia's bull centre "Parwan Park". A post-event tour was also held into Gippsland in eastern Victoria for a smaller number of delegates.
A total of almost 70 delegates from 11 countries took part in the full length tour. Additional delegates participated in the conference event at Mount Gambier, and hefty 140 people sat down to share the Formal Dinner.
Valuable alliances and friendships were made, and reinforced, during a powerful sharing of knowledge and passion for breeding red dairy cattle, during a celebration that absolutely "brought red breeds together"!
2023 saw us tour the Baltic countries of Europe, where the little country with a big heart, Estonia, organised the event titled
"Red Cows - Our Common Passion"
Commencing in Tallinn, Estonia, the main conference day hosted a total of 52 people. A bus tour saw nearly 20 people travel from the capital city Tallinn to Tartu and then to the island of Saaremaa. Continuing on the group visited several areas and stayed in Riga, Latvia and Vilnius, Lithuania. Wide ranging farm visits and cultural experiences provided for brilliant hospitality as each country gave of their finest bestowing an abundance of everything on to the delegates.
