ABP Food Group has this morning Thursday, December 7, announced a new partnership with University College Dublin (UCD) and BiOrbic, which will embark on a regenerative farm research project.
BiOrbic is based in UCD’s Belfield campus in Dublin, and describes itself as “Ireland’s national bio-economy research centre”.
The research collaboration will take place at both UCD Lyons Farm in Co. Kildare and the ABP Demo Farm in Co. Carlow.
The video below explains more about the project:
The regenerative farm research partnership will run over a period of two years and aims to provide “objective, scientifically robust data to reduce the environmental impact of pasture-based beef production systems”, according to a statement from ABP Food Group.
This will be done through “incorporating regenerative farming practices”.
Lead researcher on the project, BiOrbic’s Professor, Tommy Boland, said: “We at BiOrbic are delighted to be partnering with ABP on this innovative project, which looks at pathways to carbon-neutral beef production.
“The project will work to create a blueprint that can be scaled to commercial family farms across Ireland and further afield, future-proofing the sustainability of the beef sector.”
This project will form part of BiOrbic’s Sustainable Agriculture Challenge, which aims to deliver pathways to net-zero livestock systems and increase and biodiversity of farmed landscapes.
According to the ABP statement, the partnership with BiOrbic and UCD “is a natural evolution to ABP’s research and development farm in, Co. Carlow, and will further develop the process of carbon-neutral beef production, while at the same time looking at other important sustainability metrics such as water quality and biodiversity.
The ABP Demo Farm will undertake a grazing study comparing a multispecies sward with its conventional grazing system, to serve as a demonstration facility for its farm suppliers. Aspects of regenerative farming will be incorporated into this study.
ABP Food Group’s Irish agri-sustainability manager, Stephen Connolly, said: “We are delighted to partner with BiOrbic and UCD on this innovative and forward-thinking regenerative farm research project.
“Attaining sustainability goals is a key for ABP and investing and partnering with experts will ensure these targets and goals are met.
“We look forward to working with our colleagues and partners at the UCD Farm in Lyons Estate and our R&D Farm in Co. Carlow.
“The aim will be to implement our research findings across our family farm supply base. This will start with the farmers involved in our sustainability programme, Advantage Beef Programme, which rewards participants with a sustainability bonus.”
“We hope the research and farm practices from this research can be applied at a commercial family farm level that will support producers to reduce their environmental footprint, and add value to the production system. “
ABP has said it will utilise evidence-based results through partnerships with respected industry authorities and research institutions to further research this innovative farming method.
ABP has been a long-standing partner in the UCD SmartSward project. This collaboration has produced findings which are being utilised in this project.
These include a comparison study of cattle grazing on different swards, which resulted in 60% lower fertiliser input while growing 2.5t more grass/ha, and a reduction of 14% in the carbon footprint.
As a result of these findings, this project will also focus on water usage and water quality.
Regenerative farming is a holistic approach to sustainability, rather than looking in isolation at the carbon footprint of a production system.
The ABP six regenerative pillars are as follows:
- Farmers;
- Livestock;
- Soil health and carbon sequestration;
- Water quality;
- Crop diversity;
- Biodiversity.
These practices all fall within sustainable circular bio-economy farming practices.
ABP’s definition of Regenerative farming is: ‘An end-to-end farming system that protects and intentionally enhances natural resources based on the principle of working in harmony with the natural environment. This approach mitigates climate change and supports the future of farming families.’
Stay tuned to Agriland for further updates from this initiative.