KEPAK FARM
Located in Dunboyne, Co. Meath, Kepak Farm is a store to beef finishing enterprise. Efficiency and sustainability are key on Kepak Farm, where cattle are fed home grown crops of barley, wheat and maize.
The farm hosts regular knowledge transfer sessions with our farmer supply base and producer groups on topics such as herd health, sourcing policies, intake protocols, biosecurity, housing facilities, nutrition, sustainability, meeting market specification and best practice farm management.
For information on knowledge transfer events on Kepak Farm, please contact a member of our procurement team.
AGRICULTURE
At Kepak, we have over 30 years of experience working together with our farmer suppliers, providing our customers with the best quality meat products. Working with over 21,000 quality assured beef, lamb, and pork producers across Ireland and the UK, we are leaders in Agricultural Sustainability projects.
Animal welfare on our supplier farms is paramount. By having strong relationships with our farmer suppliers and using our expertise in agriculture we can ensure the cattle, sheep and pigs we source are from the highest quality farms, are sustainable and ultimately we are producing the best products for our consumers.
With our superbly mild climate and a generous amount of rainfall, Ireland and the UK are naturally suited to cattle production. Cattle typically graze for up to 10 months of the year on lush, natural pasture, just as nature intended.
PRODUCER GROUPS
Kepak believes that working among strong producer groups dedicated to customer service and continuous improvement is key for delivering sustainable business in Irish and British agriculture.
CERTIFIED IRISH ANGUS
Renowned for its succulent taste and flavour, Certified Irish Angus Beef is a truly unique product. Since we first began our processing and marketing alliance in 1997, with the Irish Aberdeen Angus Producer Group, our relationship has gone from strength to strength.
Over the years, in response to the high market demand for Angus, we have introduced a number of bonus structures and schemes to reward our farmer suppliers for producing high-quality Irish Angus cattle. For details on joining the Certified Irish Angus Producer Group and bonus structures, please contact a member of our procurement team.
www.CertifiedIrishAngus.ie
IRISH HEREFORD PRIME
Kepak formed a marketing and processing alliance with Irish Hereford Prime in 2013. Working together with the producer group, we source the best quality Hereford cattle to deliver our customers with great quality, certified Hereford beef.
The producer group has grown to 2,500 farmer members in recent years in response to rising market demand for excellent quality, succulent Hereford Beef. Kepak offers a number of bonus structures to farmers through the producer group.
For more details on joining the Irish Hereford Prime producer group and bonus structures, please contact a member of our procurement team.
GRAIN FED PRODUCER GROUP
Our grain fed producer group consists of open minded progressive farmers who share a strong ethos based around continually trying to adapt and improve what they do in order to consistently deliver a quality brand of beef to the end customer.
Our Grain Fed producer group was formed in 1999 and is a unique partnership between Kepak, our customers and a specialised group of suppliers to guarantee a consistent, high quality beef product 52 weeks a year.
Cattle are initially reared on grassland to take advantage of Ireland’s natural resources and then finished on a grain based diet for a minimum of 120 days.
For more details on joining our Grain Fed producer group, please contact a member of our procurement team.
Twenty20 Beef Club
Farming together for a sustainable future
The Twenty20 Beef Club is a fully integrated calf to beef Programme between Tirlán, Kepak Group and their respective farmer suppliers. A fully traceable input supply chain underpins the Programme (closed-loop) and supports the establishment of industry-leading marketing claims.
The Club is tailored to answer the increasing market demand for quality Irish beef, sourced in a sustainable, secure way, with a shorter supply chain and therefore a reduced carbon footprint.
The Club’s vision has Sustainability at its core – both financially and environmentally. Improved feed efficiency with methane-reducing feed additives, farm-to-fork traceability and a support package provided to all participants to ensure high standards are followed– are some of the many attributes that make the Twenty20 sustainable beef model so attractive to our customers.
CERTIFIED IRISH ANGUS BEEF SCHOOLS COMPETITION
Launched in 2013, the Angus Schools Project sees five secondary level schools across Ireland receive five Irish Angus calves each year with the aim of rearing the calves through to slaughter while learning about the production of Certified Irish Angus Beef. While rearing the calves, each winning school focuses on a certain topic such as animal welfare, grassland management, customer awareness and bonus schemes available for farmers.
ANIMAL HEALTH IRELAND
Kepak are proud stakeholders in Animal Health Ireland, an organisation that provides benefits to livestock producers and processors by providing the knowledge, education and coordination required to establish effective control programmes for non-regulated diseases of livestock. Animal Health Ireland, together with Kepak Group, launched the Beef Health Check project in 2015. This project assists farmers and their veterinary practitioners to control losses due to liver fluke and pneumonia through capture, analysis and reporting of abattoir data from post mortem meat inspection.
AGRI AWARE
Kepak are a proud stakeholder in Agri Aware, which is the Irish agri-food educational body. It is a charitable trust, funded by the Irish farming and agri-food industry. The mission of Agri Aware is to improve the image and understanding of agriculture, farming and the food industry among the general public. Kepak are regular contributors at Agri Aware knowledge transfer events.
IRISH GRASSLAND ASSOCIATION
Kepak are proud stakeholders in the IGA who are an organisation that support Irish farmers in the area of grassland management through transfer of technical information through event proceedings and the publication of the Annual Irish Grassland Journals, newsletters and website updates.