Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 17 December 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Teagasc Annual Report 2018: Discussion

Professor Gerry Boyle:

I will take some of the points and my colleagues can pick up on anything that I do not get around to dealing with. Senator Daly raised a very important point on the incoming European Commission and the remarks of the President of the Commission recently on the green deal. The protection of agriculture and the growth of chemical nitrogen, N, particularly on dairy farms in recent years, will be the key challenge for us and is clearly a cause of concern.

There are two strategies we would strongly advocate. First, as referenced earlier by Dr. O'Mara, farmers need to be encouraged to move away from calcium ammonium nitrate, CAN, to protected urea, which we recommend as the alternative because it has the same efficacy in terms of grass yield but it does not have the negative consequence of CAN in terms of ammonia and greenhouse emissions. Second, for the long-term ability of the sector to harness the use of nitrogen, we need to encourage farmers to adopt clover in their swards. We know from our research that currently the efficiency of chemical nitrogen on average is only 24%. For every unit of nitrogen used only 24% is utilised to produce livestock products. The remainder either goes into the atmosphere or into the ground water. We know from our work in Clonakilty, for example, that greater use of clover in swards not only makes economic sense, it is worth approximately an additional €50 per cow in terms of additional milk solids, but most important from the environmental point of view, the efficiency increases from the average of 24% to 40%. There is no question that there is a huge challenge in this area. Nitrogen sales is an obvious indicator to which everyone can point. We can talk all day long about the various promotion campaigns etc., but unless we can turn the curve in regard to chemical use it will continue to be an issue of contention and affect our ability to adhere to our ammonia and greenhouse gas targets. We have the technology to deal with it. As in many areas of agriculture, the adoption of alternative practices is forever the challenge. I noted at many of our recent conferences an increasing awareness among farmers of the need to tackle these issues. Hopefully, this will be manifest in actual decision-making on farms.

Deputy Fitzmaurice raised a number of issues. I do not have the figure relating to hedgerows. Any such figure would be a highly speculative estimate because the hedgerows are varied in terms of species and that complicates any estimation. We do not yet have an idea on the biomass involved let alone the variety of species, so I am not in a position to comment on the Deputy's figure of 8%-10%. There are many areas under continuous review as far as the so-called national inventory of greenhouse gases is concerned. That is always the case. As sciences evolve and provide us with more concrete results, that then leads to the incorporation of different estimates of sequestration potential and mitigation into the national inventory. My own view would be that we are a long way off yet. We are set on a path to 2030 in regard to the current inventory and the measures and targets. Beyond that, one would hope that we will have the information that will enable us to broaden the sequestration options.

The Deputy raised an important point in regard to the 43,000 farmers but, of course, that does not represent the totality. As rightly stated by him, some farmers do not see the need for advisory support, which is fine, and they do not see the advantage in discussion groups or, maybe, they do not like participating in discussion groups. There are a number of other farmers who exercise their entitlement to use private advisers. As part of our work we hold a variety of open days, which is probably one of the main differences between ourselves and the private sector. Everyone is invited and there is no cost involved. In terms of breakdown, typically, it is 60-40. In other words, 60% of the attendance typically are Teagasc clients and 40% would be non-clients. All of the information that farmers receive on open days is freely available. A similar ratio attend our marquee at the Ploughing Championships. Naturally, we would like to have more but we are getting our message out through different fora.

Dr. Kelly addressed the issue of the relationship with the ACA. I reiterate his point that we are very open to having a memorandum of understanding if that would help the dialogue. Again, most of our research information is publicly available but we provide tailor-made presentations through our ConnectEd programme. We see that as an efficient vehicle through which ACA members who want access to our latest research can get it. I will ask Dr. O'Mara to comment on the issues around veganism, flexitarianism and so on. Teagasc is absolutely convinced about the comprehensive and nutritional benefits of meat and dairy products, in respect of which there is an abundance of evidence, such that there is no need for people to add supplements to create that well-rounded nutritional package we all need for our health. More important, we know from our work that the grass based system provides additional nutritional value. This has been well documented in recent years in our work at Moorepark.

On the issue of low value calves, none of us here is unaware of this challenge. It is a complex issue. I do not believe it is all down to jerseys. There has been a huge change in recent times in the size of the calf because the dairy farmer wants an easy calving cow and a cow that will return to milk and fertility quickly. Less than 20 years ago, we had a massive problem with fertility of our dairy cows. It virtually collapsed. We are only now reaching the point of recovering the position we were in before that collapse in fertility. It was suggested that if we were to rid ourselves of the jerseys and jersey crosses, we would solve the issue. We would not. Our preference is to examine the opportunities that exist for the selection of calves in the marts. It is important buyers have full and transparent information on the potential value of an animal, including its beef potential. This will happen in the not too distant future. We would also argue that in the selection of bulls for dairy cows in regard to their beef trades as per the dairy beef index, that within the spread of quality, farmers should choose the animal that best delivers the outcome in beef terms. That is how it will happen in the future. We all know that prior to the introduction of the dairy quota, 80% of beef was sourced from the dairy herd. The percentage is now 60%, but it is growing.

It is inevitable that more dairy calves will come onto the market to be reared as beef animals. That is a challenge for us all. The options that the Deputy proposed are important. We believe that a large contribution can be made in the rearing of dairy calves, but I take his point that some sort of combination might be attractive if we can get an animal that is that good. One of the problems in the suckler sector is that the efficiency metrics are poor. We seem to have a real problem. For example, one metric that has been stubbornly poor is the failure of many suckler cows to produce a calf per year. That situation is worsening.

The Deputy also raised the issue of derogations. The derogation is important, but it ties into Senator Daly's point about nitrogen. Look north of the Border. It is evident that, if we do not manage to implement the measures laid out in the marginal abatement cost curve, MACC, there will be restrictions on nitrogen use in particular. There is no question about it, as that is the easiest way to do it. Due to the concerns about ammonia in Northern Ireland, the restrictions have virtually halted any development in the dairy industry there. We are alert to that issue.

I am not aware of the stocking rates that the Deputy mentioned. Is Dr. O'Mara?

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.