diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3e4469100cc1f82895ffabebacd7f1fb533cee5c..3a55e8c1c141451f1ff1aaa004119bca6ada2de0 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -161,6 +161,7 @@ Next change the version in the following places:
 
 # Release Notes
 
+* 0.38.1 Custom compiled casacore for improved beam-tracking performance
 * 0.38.0 Add metadata device publishing zmq events
 * 0.37.2 Improved event-subscription interface, avoid overlap between polling loops.
 * 0.37.1 Improved asyncio resource teardown when devices go Off.
diff --git a/docker/lofar-device-base/Dockerfile b/docker/lofar-device-base/Dockerfile
index af246c0f1bb44dda22ea4cf026ed6714c0fd98b9..be1dc25ed52bb7087df704a1f2b54b388c305c80 100644
--- a/docker/lofar-device-base/Dockerfile
+++ b/docker/lofar-device-base/Dockerfile
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 ARG SOURCE_IMAGE
 FROM ${SOURCE_IMAGE}
-
 ARG TANGO_STATION_CONTROL
 ENV TANGO_STATION_CONTROL $TANGO_STATION_CONTROL
 
@@ -19,6 +18,46 @@ RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/var/cache/apt \
 RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/var/cache/apt \
     sudo apt-get install -y netcat
 
+# Compile casacore and python-casacore ourselves to get the latest
+# versions and custom tuning.
+ENV CASACORE_VERSION=master
+ARG CXX_FLAGS="--std=c++11 -W -Wall -Woverloaded-virtual -Wno-unknown-pragmas -D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=1 -O3"
+
+# Have -mtune reflect the target platform, see
+#     gcc -march=native -Q --help=target | grep mtune
+# Have the extensions flags reflect the common subset of all target platforms, use
+#     gcc -march=native -Q --help=target > xyz-native.txt
+# to get the flags supported on a specific host, and use
+#     sort amd-native.txt intel-native.txt | uniq -d | grep enabled | awk '{ printf $1 " " }'
+# to get the overlap of supported extensions on two platforms.
+ARG CXX_ARG_FLAGS="-mtune=skylake -m128bit-long-double -m64 -m80387 -mabm -madx -maes -malign-stringops -mavx2 -mavx -mbmi2 -mbmi -mclflushopt -mcrc32 -mcx16 -mf16c -mfancy-math-387 -mfma -mfp-ret-in-387 -mfsgsbase -mfxsr -mglibc -mhard-float -mhle -mieee-fp -mlong-double-80 -mlzcnt -mmmx -mmovbe -mmwait -mpclmul -mpopcnt -mprfchw -mpush-args -mrdrnd -mrdseed -mred-zone -msahf -msgx -msse2 -msse3 -msse4.1 -msse4.2 -msse4 -msse -mssse3 -mstv -mtls-direct-seg-refs -mvzeroupper -mxsavec -mxsave -mxsaveopt -mxsaves"
+
+RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/var/cache/apt \
+    sudo apt-get install -y wget cmake gfortran flex bison libreadline-dev libncurses-dev libopenblas-dev libfftw3-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-test-dev libboost-system-dev libcfitsio-dev wcslib-dev python3-numpy-dev libhdf5-dev libgsl-dev
+
+RUN mkdir -p /tmp/casacore/build && \
+    cd /tmp/casacore && git clone --depth 1 --shallow-submodules --branch ${CASACORE_VERSION} https://github.com/casacore/casacore.git src && \
+    cd /tmp/casacore/build && cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -DDATA_DIR=/opt/IERS -DBUILD_PYTHON3=ON -DBUILD_PYTHON=OFF -DPYTHON_EXECUTABLE=/usr/bin/python3 -DENABLE_TABLELOCKING=OFF -DUSE_OPENMP=ON -DUSE_FFTW3=TRUE -DUSE_HDF5=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="${CXX_FLAGS} ${CXX_ARG_FLAGS} -fsigned-char -DNDEBUG" ../src/ && \
+    cd /tmp/casacore/build && make -j && \
+    cd /tmp/casacore/build && sudo make install && \
+    rm -rf /tmp/casacore
+
+# update ld.so.cache so casacore libraries will be found, as python-casacore does not link in the full path
+RUN sudo ldconfig
+
+ENV PYTHON_CASACORE_VERSION=v3.5.2 \
+    PYTHON_VERSION=3.10
+
+RUN --mount=type=cache,target=/var/cache/apt \
+    sudo apt-get install -y make python3-setuptools libcfitsio-dev wcslib-dev
+
+RUN mkdir /tmp/python-casacore && \
+    cd /tmp/python-casacore && git clone --depth 1 --shallow-submodules --branch ${PYTHON_CASACORE_VERSION} https://github.com/casacore/python-casacore.git && \
+    cd /tmp/python-casacore/python-casacore && python3 ./setup.py build_ext -I/usr/local/include/ -L/usr/local/lib/ && \
+    cd /tmp/python-casacore/python-casacore && sudo python3 ./setup.py install && \
+    sudo rm -rf /tmp/python-casacore
+
+# Install tangostationcontrol and its dependencies
 COPY tmp/requirements.txt /tangostationcontrol-requirements.txt
 
 RUN echo "TANGO_STATION_CONTROL: ${TANGO_STATION_CONTROL}"
diff --git a/tangostationcontrol/VERSION b/tangostationcontrol/VERSION
index ca75280b09b20e8cbe40563adac1dcf41a02f412..bb22182d4f72fd2a28c50b8ecfa5df74501dc431 100644
--- a/tangostationcontrol/VERSION
+++ b/tangostationcontrol/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.38.0
+0.38.1