Dairy, beef and tillage farmers can team up to overcome income and environmental challenges, Teagasc director Gerry Boyle has said.
“There’s space for integrated dairy-beef farming systems. Dairy and beef work in silos,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.
This separation does not maximise the value of dairy beef output, while most suckler and beef farmers depend on off-farm jobs. Boyle found the low participation in schemes such as BDGP and BEEP “puzzling”.
When asked if suckler farmers should exit the business, Boyle said: “I’d never say that. But if you’re farming full-time, trying to pay the bills and raise a family, we’re saying there are alternatives.”
These include contract-rearing heifers and growing fodder for dairy farmers – also an option for tillage farmers. “The benefits of dairy can be shared with other farmers,” he said.
Meanwhile, dairy farmers need greenhouse gas emissions to go down “as a licence to continue farming”, Boyle said. This includes planting trees and hedgerows and working with other farmers to manage stock numbers. He said the quality of beef calves from the dairy herd would have to improve. “The first thing will be to try and stabilise the numbers”, and associated methane emissions, Boyle said. He would not predict whether this would come from a “curtailment” of dairy expansion or further cuts in suckler numbers.
Energy production is another alternative, but is “further down the road,” he added.
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'Alternatives' to sucklers needed – Boyle
Contract-rearing: an alternative to leasing land
Dairy, beef and tillage farmers can team up to overcome income and environmental challenges, Teagasc director Gerry Boyle has said.
“There’s space for integrated dairy-beef farming systems. Dairy and beef work in silos,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.
This separation does not maximise the value of dairy beef output, while most suckler and beef farmers depend on off-farm jobs. Boyle found the low participation in schemes such as BDGP and BEEP “puzzling”.
When asked if suckler farmers should exit the business, Boyle said: “I’d never say that. But if you’re farming full-time, trying to pay the bills and raise a family, we’re saying there are alternatives.”
These include contract-rearing heifers and growing fodder for dairy farmers – also an option for tillage farmers. “The benefits of dairy can be shared with other farmers,” he said.
Meanwhile, dairy farmers need greenhouse gas emissions to go down “as a licence to continue farming”, Boyle said. This includes planting trees and hedgerows and working with other farmers to manage stock numbers. He said the quality of beef calves from the dairy herd would have to improve. “The first thing will be to try and stabilise the numbers”, and associated methane emissions, Boyle said. He would not predict whether this would come from a “curtailment” of dairy expansion or further cuts in suckler numbers.
Energy production is another alternative, but is “further down the road,” he added.
Read more
'Alternatives' to sucklers needed – Boyle
Contract-rearing: an alternative to leasing land
SHARING OPTIONS