Whether agriculture in Ireland faces a 22% emissions-reduction target or a 30% target is “irrelevant” as we don’t have the “solutions” available to reach those targets currently.

That’s according to head of the Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation programme at Teagasc, Laurence Shalloo who was speaking at the Irish Grassland Association (IGA) conference in Co. Tipperary this week.

He highlighted the importance of using technologies currently available to farmers to reduce emissions from agriculture, a topic which is under the spotlight at the moment as government ministers try to agree a target for agriculture.

Technologies and emissions

There are a number of technologies available to farmers that can reduce emissions on farms but Shalloo told the conference that to encourage uptake of these technologies, “we need to firstly become award of the impact of the decisions”.

“We need to become aware of the impact of switching the chemical nitrogen (N) type we are using.

“There is very little difference is price for a urea-based fertiliser compared to a [calcium ammonium nitrate] CAN-based fertiliser. But the impact on emissions from your farm is pretty dramatic.

“We need to do what we can with the technology we have available to us,” he added.

Laurence Shalloo speaking at the IGA conference

Other technologies that farmers need to look at are clover swards, low emission slurry spreading (LESS) and breeding, according to the Teagasc expert.

“You might not think that Friesian male cattle finishing two months later than prime beef cattle is important to you, but it is,” he explained.

“It is important to you and the agricultural industry as a whole.

“We [Teagasc] need to find solutions to ensure that emission targets are met in 2030. There is a significant amount of investment being made in technologies to get us there, but we are not all the way there.

“Whether it is 22% or 30% is almost irrelevant, because we don’t have the solutions to bring us to that point currently,” he explained.