The increase in agricultural emissions in recent years has been “driven by government policy” since the abolition of milk quotas, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has claimed.
Responding to the provisional figures of Ireland’s emissions in 2021 – which were published today (Thursday, July 21) by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – IFA president Tim Cullinan said that those figures for agriculture reflect decisions made by farmers which in turn were influenced by government decisions after 2015.
The figures from the EPA indicate that agricultural emissions increased by 3% in 2021.
“Farmers were urged to expand and have invested heavily in their businesses.”
Speaking this afternoon, Cullinan said: “Farmers are committed to doing their fair share to see emissions reduce by 22% by 2030, but it will take time for the substantial change in practice that are taking place at farm level to be reflected in the emissions figures.”
He noted that milk output and fertiliser are down in 2022 compared to 2021, and argued that there is “a natural levelling-off” in cow numbers.
Cullinan also cited trials by Teagasc, which he said suggest that cows grazing outdoors produce less methane than the systems in other countries.
He acknowledged that this data needs to be previewed, but said it could “make a significant difference to farm sector emissions figures”.
Speaking to Agriland yesterday, Teagasc’s head of animal and grassland research Laurence Shalloo said that emission factors for methane in grazing are “probably overestimated”.
“There was some work done measuring methane at grazing maybe 10-12 years ago that had emission factors that were very low in the spring, and when I say very low, I mean, a lot lower than the national inventory calculations,” Shalloo noted.
Teagasc has now followed up on that study using different technology from the US called the ‘GreenFeed’ system.
“What we’re finding is that we’re getting spring numbers as low as we were getting the first time; summer numbers are similar to what we were getting; but our autumn numbers are much lower.
“So essentially, what we’re saying is that our emission factors for methane in grazing are probably overestimated. Certainly in the dairy setting, we’re overestimating how much methane our animals are producing,” he explained.