Professor Kevin O'Connor:

I agree with Dr. Lanigan on the model being very important and the building of robust models. We are measuring soil samples on Shinagh Farm in County Cork. Down the road there is going to be a need for certification. While the model can give a certain level of data towards certification we think farmers will be required to, for example, actually take soil samples. As Dr. Lanigan rightly pointed, out we will not measure every hedgerow. That will be impossible, so we will need models to help with the analysis but with things like soil sampling we are working towards measuring soil. Just as Dr. Lanigan mentioned about the signpost farms, we are also taking baseline levels at Shinagh Farm but we are also working on satellite imagery. He talked about ground-truthing. We will be using carbon flux towers like Dr. Lanigan is, and we collaborate with Teagasc on this. We are also working from satellite imagery and, therefore, a farmer could get a satellite image that would tell him or her the quantity of emissions coming from the farm. It is not there yet as it is not robust enough but that is part of the research. We think this will also be an important tool.