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Andrew Mullins.
An assessment tool known as the Carbon Navigator is used to assess each beef and dairy farm under Ireland's sustainability scheme Origin Green.
This is a booklet that tells the farmer what are the requirements to comply with Origin Green and how to improve their farm’s performance in such things as nitrogen efficiency, energy efficiency, slurry management and how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Andrew Mullins, Bord Bia’s sustainability development manager, says the Carbon Navigator also takes account of the location of each farm and the environment in which it operates.
“Because if you are a farmer in the west of Ireland, around Galway, compared with a farmer in the south east, near Cork, it is very different – even in terms of terrain so we had to recognise that,” Mullins told Rural News.
“The system is very practical and easy for farmers to understand and implement. Essentially it’s a tool to boost farm profitability.”
Once signed up to Origin Green, farmers are audited every 18 months and get a full report and score card on how they have performed. They also have a Teagasc farm advisor who helps them through the process and gives advice. Dairy co-operatives have their own advisors who also assist farmers to get the best possible results.
Irish farmers have been quick to take up technological advances on farm. Most farmers have smartphones and these help them meet the Origin Green conditions.
At the National Ploughing Championships in Ireland, last month, Bord Bia had an impressive site and a steady stream of farmer visitors. Chief executive Aidan Cotter was there along with Joe Burke, the sector livestock manager for cattle at Bord Bia.
Burke is a Nuffield Scholar who’s visited NZ twice in the last year or so and is full of praise for our farming and processing industries. At the Ploughing Championships -- like NZ’s Fieldays minus the ploughing -- Burke was constantly fielding questions about Origin Green. He says his role is to make the scheme relevant to farmers.
“Farmers could be excused for thinking that carbon footprinting only affects politicians, when they are sitting around debating greenhouse gas emissions,” he told Rural News.
“But this is bringing home to farmers – in their own community – that it does relate to them and their livestock.”
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