Professor Gerry Boyle:

It was very much designed to enable new entrants into agriculture, particularly into dairy. It was to establish a farm that could be sustainable in economic terms at a relatively low cost. It has been immensely successful in that respect. We have established several discussion groups - this is the role of the Moorepark officers on the farm - of young people who have come into dairying for the first time. They are enabled through the model to put together the investment needed.

We are conscious of the importance of communicating full information on the operation of the farm, the successes and the failures. Most recently, during Storm Emma, there were concerns around several animal deaths. Two cows and six calves died during that storm. We have commissioned a review, carried out by the former Secretary General of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, along with the other partners in the project. We are awaiting finalisation of that review. Lessons will certainly be learned in terms of the model and managing an extreme event like that into the future.