28 November 2023

Results from the Teagasc Sustainability Report

Cathal Buckley, Researcher at the Rural Economy Unit in Teagasc Athenry, joins Stuart Childs on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to discuss the results from the sustainability report of 2022 that was published in October of this year.

Cathal first outlines the number of dairy farms involved in the survey and some of the figures associated with them, such as the average number of dairy cows being 92 on the herds involved.

Cathal discusses the reasons for the reduction in the per hectare emissions on dairy farms in 2022. The main reason being the reduction in chemical fertiliser applied, but also due to the change in the fertiliser type with the switch from CAN to straight urea and protected urea.

However, he explains, due to the switch to straight urea over protected urea, there was an increase in ammonia emissions. The change to urea based fertiliser has been a positive but it needs to change to protected urea to have maximum impact on ammonia.

Cathal says that efficiency gains have been good but have been eroded by the increase in the national herd, so we need to continue to adopt the technologies to drive down the overall emissions and then the green shoots of research in relation to methane emissions from rumination can potentially have a significant impact when they do eventually come to the market.

Cathal finishes by recommending that farmers look to rapidly embrace clover and multispecies, with the latter looking promising in early research, to reduce the reliance on chemical fertiliser which is subject to fluctuation due to the ongoing geo-political climate.  

Listen to the podcast below:

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast, a Teagasc co-production with LastCastMedia.com, go to the show page.