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The best estimates put maize yields advancing by an average of 2% a year over the last two decades. Grass yields have gone up by about 0.5%.
In reality, because of the limited amounts of reseeding, the Irish figure is significantly less than an annual gain of 0.5%. Grass is critical to Irish agriculture. We are in permanent deficit in grain production so the price of cereal raw materials will be set by the landed cost of imports plus port handling and transport charges.
At the same time, we must export about 90% of our dairy and beef products. We will not be competitive internationally if we have systems that rely exclusively on grain.
To exploit and embrace the competitive advantage that grass gives us, the Irish Farmers Journal in conjunction with University College Cork (UCC) and in co-operation with Teagasc has funded a special senior lectureship in grass science in memory of our former editor, Paddy O’Keeffe. Paddy was always committed to better exploiting Irish grass.
The breeding, growing, preservation and utilisation of Irish grass is and will continue to be the foundation of profitable broad-based Irish farming.
It just takes a summer like the one we have come through to make us realise how productivity suffers and costs mount if grass growth is, for any reason, sub-optimal.
The development in understanding the importance of various genetic and cellular mechanisms in the grass plant holds out the possibility of developing grass strains and varieties that will dramatically increase the photosynthetic ability of the grass plant with the possibility of greater drought resistance as well as greater sugar contents in autumn-grazed material.
Well suited to the long-term task of digging deep and uncovering the extra potential that grass grown under Irish conditions offers, the new lecturer Dr Rossana Henriques has an impressive CV involving terms in the Max-Planck Institute in Germany and the Rockefeller University in New York.
The tie-up with UCC and Teagasc Moorepark will, we expect, develop a world leading grass research and utilisation model. It is a fitting tribute to Paddy O’Keeffe’s memory and life’s work.
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