Of all the EU27 member states, we have by far the highest proportion of our agricultural land in the form of grassland. Because we take it for granted, we can easily overlook the significance of it on several fronts.

Last week, the Department of Agriculture ran an excellent day-long session looking at the various aspects that make up the grassland sector in Ireland. The area has more angles than it used have.

For a commercial farmer, the key element is productivity, for the economist it’s about national competitiveness, for some policymakers it’s about the carbon sequestration role that should help us meet our greenhouse gas emission targets. For those selling our produce abroad, it’s about how to capitalise on the cosy green image associated with cows, cattle and sheep grazing happily outside. You only have to see the marketing images used by the giant Dutch FrieslandCampina co-op to get the picture.

From an Irish point of view, there is also the regionally critical question of how should the less than good land be used? How much should go into forestry and how can livestock be profitable when the purchasing power of agricultural products continues to decline.

If large tracts of land are abandoned because of zero profitability, then what becomes of the land and rural areas? Are we content to see the land tumble down to furze, bracken and scrub and large-scale depopulation as people leave?

I took home a few messages that will inevitably become more important as the CAP reform talks begin in earnest.

1 We will see more imaginative ways of paying for environmental services – how much these payments will be worth and who will monitor the delivery of them will be key issues.

2 Will we find new uses for grass in, for example, it helping to extract protein to reduce the dependence on US soya?

3Will we continue to reseed using pure swards of perennial ryegrass? I was fascinated to hear of the benefits of clover and using other species in grass seed mixtures such as Timothy and Cocksfoot. The benefits in sheep include heavier, earlier lambs, better fertility and lower worm infection rates. I never knew that some of the trifolium (clover) species have a naturally occurring antibiotic type substance that inhibits worm development and, of course, clover-mixed species swards have much lower need for nitrogen than pure perennial.

Grass is of such limited importance in so many countries that much of the ground-breaking work will have to be done in a small number of countries – Ireland among them. The Department should be complimented on the day – they assembled a tremendous cross-section from different organisations and interests as well as opening a new window of knowledge on the world for many.