The winners of the Origin Green Sustainable Beef and Dairy Producer Awards will be announced tonight (October 21) at a ceremony in the Heritage Hotel, Co. Laois.

A total of 28 farmers from the beef and dairy sectors have been nominated for the awards and over 200 farmers and industry representatives are expected to attend the ceremony.

The awards recognise the exceptional improvements in sustainability achieved by farmers on the Bord Bia Quality Assurance Scheme.

Judges from Bord Bia and Teagasc selected the nominees, with improvements in various areas, including animal performance, herd health and fertility, and control on inputs such as feed and fertiliser.

Ireland is the first country in the world to audit and carbon-footprint its farms on a national scale, at a rate of 650 a week as part of a pro-active approach to sustainability, according to Bord Bia.

Bord Bia Chief Executive Aidan Cotter, has said that it is important for Bord Bia to acknowledge, celebrate and showcase best practice, efficient farmers who continue to lead by example.

“In what is a difficult year for farm incomes, lowering the farm’s Carbon Footprint through efficiency gains will not only reduce production cost and improve on-farm profitability, but will also enhance returns from the marketplace.”

Origin Green is the world’s first national programme to address climate change and the broader sustainability challenges in food and agriculture.

From the dairy sector, 18 farmers have been shortlisted for the awards:

dairy-shortlist
From the beef sector 12 farmers have been shortlisted:

beef-shortlist

Bord Bia has put together this short video which includes some of the farmers from the shortlist from tonight’s awards.

BEEF DAIRY FARMING ORIGIN GREEN AWARDS