The Sustainable Grassland Farmer of the Year competition has run successfully for the last 8 years. This year, however, a new direction will be taken to select Ireland’s best grassland farmers.

A key pillar of the Grass10 Campaign, the rejuvenated Sustainable Pasture Progress Awards will recognise those farmers who demonstrate and continue to progress their levels of pasture production and utilisation in a sustainable manner.

Open to all livestock farmers, data from PastureBase Ireland and AgNav databases will be used to identify the award winners.

The criteria that will be used to assess applicants will be progression with pasture performance, level of pasture measurement, level of clover content, nutrient management and recording, usage of PastureBase tools, animal output, nutrient balance and carbon footprint.

The focus of the competition is to reward those farmers who are making progress in all aspects of pasture management.

Prize winners

This is a national recognition event with a total fund of €35,000 per year. An award of €1,000 will be made to a farmer from each county in the Republic of Ireland based on the above criteria. Regional winners will be selected from Munster, Leinster and Connacht/Ulster and these winners will receive an additional prize of €2,000. An overall winner will be recognised and will receive an additional prize of €3,000.

A pasture progress celebration event will take place to celebrate the progress being made in the area of pasture management. The awards will be presented by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Grass10 Campaign

The Grass10 Campaign aims to increase the quantity of pasture utilised on livestock farms (dairy, beef, and sheep), with the objective of achieving 10 tons pasture Dry Matter per hectare per year utilised, with 10 grazings per paddock each year. The Grass10 campaign is supported by Teagasc, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, AIB, FBD, Grassland Agro and the Farmers Journal.

There has been sizeable progress made in pasture management, clover establishment and environmental footprint over the last eight years of the Grass10 Campaign. Managing grassland with less nitrogen fertiliser inputs and with greater reliance on biological nitrogen from clover can reduce cost of production, increase animal performance, and reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions.

Find out more about the Grass10 Campaign here.

Featured image caption: Launching the Grassland awards, as part of the Grass10 campaign were: Front: Sean McMahon, Grassland Agro, Liam Herlihy, Teagasc Chairman, Michael Berkery, FBD Trust, Martin Heydon TD, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, John Macnamara, Grass10 Chairman.  Back: Aidan Bugler, Teagasc, Donal Walsh, AIB, David Cummins, DAFM, Lorcan Roche Kelly, Irish Farmers Journal, Paul Maher, Teagasc, Mary Dunphy, FBD.