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Dairy farmers who, up to now, have compared their farm against
the neighbour's farm in terms of litres of milk, fertility
and EBI, will soon have a new measurement to work off.
Teagasc is to launch a carbon-counting software programme
that will enable farmers to rate themselves against the most
carbon efficient farms in the country.
The Carbon Navigator, which is currently in prototype form,
is aimed at calculating how carbon efficient individual dairy
farms are. The software allows farmers to identify aspects
of farm management that are known to effectively reduce the
carbon-footprint of their produce. These include herd EBI,
the length of the grazing season, nitrogen management, slurry
management and storage and energy consumption.
The programme will calculate the farm's performance in each
area and then compare it to the performance of the top 10pc
of similar farm enterprises in similar areas and physical
environments. It will also allow farmers to set their own
future targets.
The pilot roll-out of the Carbon Navigator for dairy farms
is planned for mid-2012 and will be followed by Carbon Navigators
for beef, sheep and tillage enterprises.
Pat Murphy, head of environment knowledge transfer in Teagasc,
said the focus for farmers should be carbon reduction through
management practices and not expensive individual farm-by-farm
carbon counting procedures.
Europe's Joint Research Council last year ranked Ireland
second in Europe for carbon efficiency in milk production,
only marginally behind Austria. Ireland was ranked fifth in
Europe for carbon efficient beef production.
"It is possible for Ireland to become Europe's most carbon
efficient dairy producer," said Mr Murphy. "That is our objective."
Source - The Irish Independent
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