Events: my take-home message (winter 2025)
Teagasc’s researchers attend many events throughout the year, sharing the findings from their research with national and international audiences. Here, we capture the take-home messages – key pieces of information that our researchers want people to remember – from recent events. In this issue we focus on sustainable growing media and pig welfare.
Rooted in renewal: future of growing is peat-free and circular
Event: Growing Media 2025
Date: 7–12 September
From peat to progress – the Teagasc team: Gabrielle Young, Patricia Morris, Michael Gaffney, Akinson Tumbure, Eoghan Corbett and Luke Barnes
The Teagasc Growing Media research group joined scientists, industry and policy voices for this event at the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences in Freising, Germany. The week-long programme tackled the sector’s twin transition: moving from peat-based to peat-free media and from linear to circular systems. The event threaded together microbial ecology, materials science and sustainability assessment, exposing barriers to peat-free adoption across Europe, explained Eoghan Corbett, a Research Officer in Teagasc’s Horticulture Development Department
“Future demand, new raw material processing, media characterisation methods, substrate re-use and peat-reduced production also featured. Applied research looked at means of improving wood-fibre, stratified pot filling, and water and nutrient management.”
Study trips grounded the science in practice, with delegates visiting soilless nurseries and vegetable units, urban plantings using engineered substrates, and facilities producing fibres and compost-based media.
Contributions from Teagasc’s attendees focused on new techniques, tools and practical pathways for growers: Akinson Tumbure outlined screening of wood fibre and biochar for vegetable media and a two-cycle strawberry programme refined through irrigation and fertigation; Luke Barnes examined how peat-free nursery media can shape health- and sensory-related compounds in kale; Gabrielle Young showcased 3-D X-ray CT-scanning to visualise casing architecture for mushroom cultivation; and Patricia Morris profiled peat-alternative blends for bedding plants, linking laboratory traits to plant performance.
Eogan concludes: “Teagasc’s work didn’t just align with where the research is heading, it helped push it forward, sparking lively discussion, opening doors to new collaborations, and sending the team home with a sharper focus on shared next steps.”
Becoming WelFarmers: best practice in pig welfare
Event: Pig Farmers Conferences (Ireland) and Congreso Nacional de Suinicultura (Portugal)
Date: 7-9 October 2025
Farmers learn practical steps toward better pig welfare. Photo credit: Tom Ryan Casey Photography
Societal demands are rapidly changing animal farming in the EU. Lowering antimicrobial use, reducing emissions and improving welfare are some of the challenges farmers are facing in recent years. In this race for sustainability, farmers need any technical help they can get and rapid knowledge transfer between countries is key in this adaptation.
The WelFarmers Project, funded by Horizon Europe, includes 18 organisations from all over the EU, partnering in a network that shares best practice in animal welfare. As good examples of the WelFarmers activities, Ciaran Carroll, Head of Pigs Knowledge Transfer at Teagasc and his pig advisory team organised a Pig Farmers’ Conference, bringing Danish expert Vivi Aarestrup to share best practice in sow and pig welfare. At the same time, Edgar Garcia Manzanilla, Head of the Pig and Poultry Development Department at Teagasc, joined the parallel conference in Portugal to share best practices of the Irish pig sector with the Portuguese and Spanish colleagues.
Edgar explains: “There is plenty of animal welfare knowledge in the EU that sometimes does not get properly disseminated due to language barriers or lack of resources. This rapid knowledge transfer between countries speeds up innovation, saves millions in research and ultimately improves the life of pigs and humans.”
Don’t miss Teagasc’s upcoming events! Join us at the Stripe Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, RDS, Dublin,
7-10 January 2026. Visit our website for more information on this and all our upcoming events: www.teagasc.ie