Sustainability has been a buzz word used in the Irish agricultural sector for some time now, with increasing sustainability a goal on many farms.
Recently, Ifac, Aurivo and Teagasc hosted a farm walk on the dairy farm of Henry and Enda Walsh in Oranmore, Co. Galway.
The walk focused on improving farm efficiencies during a period of soaring input costs, inflation, difficulties finding the right employees and farm sustainability measures.
Know your number
Majella McCafferty from Aurivo outlined some measures that farmers can adopt to increase their farm’s sustainability.
“A lot of these measures can be used on your farm with little or no extra cost to you,” she said.
“The first thing is to know your number; the sustainable dairy assurance scheme (SDAS) Bord Bia audit has to be done every year and from that you get a number.
“Every single milk supplier will get a number at the bottom of the milk statement.”
So what is the purpose of this number?
“It takes into account all the different activities on the farm and gives you your carbon footprint,” Majella explained.
“Every single activity on your farm contributes towards your farm’s carbon footprint,” she reminded.
“This can be used as a key performance indicator for efficiencies, so you can always try to keep improving it.”
For a dairy farm, every kg of milk gives a figure (CO2/kg of fat and protein-corrected milk, known shortened as FPCM).
Majella said that the national target is 0.7kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) and that the current co-op average is 0.99kg of CO2e.
Farm sustainability
Farmers can lower this figure by using low emission slurry spreading (LESS) and feeding a lower protein percentage in the concentrates.
Harvesting high-quality silage with a high dry matter digestibility (DMD) also helps. Majella stated that the current co-op average for the last five years was 69% DMD.
Increasing this figure would result in less concentrates being required for liquid milk producers.
Majella then outlined three positives changes that farms can make to improve their farm’s sustainability in 2022:
1. Switching to protected urea and establishing clover: Clover could reduce the nitrogen (N) required on the farm by 50-200kg/ha.
All slurry applied using LESS reduces the ammonia emissions on-farm and there is greater N use efficiency – it is also suitable for paddocks with covers of grass;
2. Improving biodiversity: By increasing the number of hedgerows and habitats on-farm and reducing the chemicals applied under the fence line;
3. Improving water quality: By reducing chemical usage and by using buffer zones to prevent direct run-off into water courses.
“These measures is where we are going to improve efficiencies on farms and this also improves your farm’s sustainability long term,” Majella added.