Professor Tommy Boland:

I would echo that comment. We work really well at an institutional level and at an individual researcher level. We have many students supervised by UCD who are working on Teagasc research sites through the Walsh scholarship scheme. Work is going on in UCD, Johnstown Castle, the Grange facility, the Athenry campus, Moorepark and the Curtins farm. It is really valuable to have this replication of sites across the country because for a small island we have a number of different soil types around the country. If we want to introduce a new technology like a multispecies sward, we need to understand how it responds in different soil types and different climatic conditions. Replication is not always a bad thing.