A new digital tool that will help farmers “count” emissions and carbon removals on their farms is currently being developed by Teagasc, the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) and Bord Bia.

Teagasc unveiled details of the ‘sustainability digital platform’ at the launch of its new climate action strategy today (Thursday, December 1) at its Ashtown campus in Co. Dublin.

Dr Siobhan Jordan Source: Teagasc

The digital platform is one of three key pillars in this new strategy and according to Dr Siobhan Jordan, head of technology transfer and commercialisation with Teagasc, the digital tool will help farmers to “benchmark” current emissions.

Teagasc said the platform currently under development will also support farmers in their efforts to reduce emissions with a ‘know my number – make my plan’ approach.

The platform is scheduled to be launched in the first quarter next year with a pilot “action planner”.

In quarter two 2023 there will be specific dairy and beef models rolled out and then in quarter four it will also include a sheep model.

A tillage model is not scheduled to be offered to farmers until quarter three 2024 and then in quarter four of that year a pig model of the platform will offered to farmers.

This new tool will also enable farmers to count carbon sequestered on the farm as well as emissions by 2025.

Teagasc outlined at the launch of its climate action strategy that the digital platform will provide “real time data analysis” and will enable farmers to “prioritise” their efforts to reduce emissions on their farms.

According to the authority farmers will have to opt in to share their data but when the platform is operational it will be a collective tool for holding information on the likes of the Bord Bia quality assurance scheme and other key information currently supplied by farmers on different programmes.

Teagasc highlighted at the launch of its new strategy today that this approach would create a new repository of information and faciliate a “robust whole farm sustainability assessment” tool.

But there were concerns about how this data would be used and retained flagged today at Teagasc’s campus Ashtown.

Tim Cullinan, president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) said there was a need to “be careful about the sensitive data coming from farmers” while Pat McCormack, president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) also said that “farmers would need reassurance on where that data goes”.