Overcoming the challenges to producing sustainable Irish beef

Producing Irish beef sustainably is important and poses many challenges as reducing Greenhouse Gases (GHG) is something farmers have heard about a lot lately, especially with agriculture accounting for 34% of Irish GHG emissions.  On this episode of the Beef Edge, Catherine Egan is joined by Prof Sinead Waters, Researcher in Teagasc Grange and Dr Dominika Krol, Researcher in Teagasc Johnstown Castle to find out more. One of the mitigation measures is protected urea as it reduces losses of both ammonia and Nitrous Oxide compared to conventional N fertilisers whilst consistently yielding as well as CAN and at similar cost. Dominika highlights the importance of the 4 Rs: Right fertiliser source, Right rate, Right time, Right place.   Sinead discusses the preliminary findings one of the projects, RumenPredict, which is a collaboration with the ICBF in Tully, where they are studying methane emissions from large numbers of beef sucklers, and it suggests that reducing methane production enhances on-farm profitability.   On July 8th, the day will be dedicated to ‘Sustainable Beef Production - Where policy meets practice’ as part of the Teagasc Virtual Beef Week. The challenges and the solutions in improving water quality, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and maintaining and enhancing biodiversity will be discussed.  For more information click here.   For more episodes and information covered on the Beef Edge, visit: teagasc.ie/thebeefedge The Beef Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.