Does tillage hold solutions to livestock challenges?

Too often when facing into a challenge we look for the single elaborate solution – often at the expense of realising the combined potential of a number of smaller, and often easier to implement, actions. Farming is no different, particularly when it comes to identifying how best the sector can respond to the current environmental challenges.

The rollout of existing and new technologies will be key in helping farmers reduce gaseous emissions and in tackling the challenges relating to water quality and biodiversity loss. However, alongside these we must also explore the dividends that can be achieved from the better integration of farming enterprises.

Over the past decade, we have seen a decline in the sensible integration of farming enterprises. In more recent times, the abolition of dairy quotas, the income divide across sectors and an increased specialisation at individual farm level have further contributed. But the direction of policy over this period has also played a major part in effectively pushing sectors into silos.

Strategic plan

As the Department of Agriculture moves to refine Ireland’s CAP strategic plan, the need to introduce policy measures that reverse this trend should not be ignored. The benefits are obvious, in terms of both environmental and economic sustainability – particularly in relation to incentivising better collaboration between the livestock and tillage sectors.

On one side we see livestock farmers requiring a nitrates derogation due to the high levels of organic matter being produced on their farms. We also see evidence of a decline in water quality associated with an increased concentration of livestock numbers.

On the other, tillage farmers face a significant challenge with land being mined of nutrients and carbon, and declining organic matter. While nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium can be replaced with chemical fertilisers, organic matter must also be returned – in terms of achieving maximum yields from optimal levels of chemical fertilisers and increasing the level of carbon sequestration and retention in soils. The straw incorporation scheme is a step in the right direction – but returning farmyard manures back on to tillage farms would deliver a much greater gain for carbon and overall soil health.

Balance of nutrients

Against this backdrop, there is clearly a need to develop a strategy that encourages a better balance of nutrients across agricultural land. Achieving this does not necessarily mean moving large quantities of slurry and manure around the country. Encouraging livestock to be housed and fed on tillage farms over the winter period should be encouraged. Based on the environmental dividend in terms of carbon sequestration and water quality, incentivising such practices within agri-environmental schemes or eco-schemes would make sense. Doing so also has the potential to bring online increased slurry and manure storage capacity, with many tillage farmers having functional livestock housing lying redundant.

The downstream benefits of encouraging the development of these cross-sectoral relationships extends beyond improving the balance and utilisation of organic manures. The potential also exists to address some of the wider sustainability challenges facing the livestock sector – particularly in relation to the reliance of both beef and dairy production on imported protein sources.

Native rations

The potential for native rations to address this issue has been identified. But we have seen no incentives being put in place to encourage both the development and utilisation of these rations within the livestock sector. This will only come if and when the environmental dividend from the inclusion of native grains and proteins in rations is reflected in the form of a price incentive for the end product and/or encouraged through eco and agri-environment schemes.

However, the ambition to reduce our livestock sector’s reliance on imported feedstuffs should not focus solely on native rations. We should also recognise the potential for the tillage sector to supply high-quality protein forages, such as red clover and/or multi-species swards.

Multiple benefits

As well as generating a dividend for livestock farmers, incorporating these forages into the crop rotation would yield significant dividends for tillage farmers. The exclusion of these high-quality protein forage crops within the protein aid scheme makes no sense in the context of trying to further improve the sustainability of our livestock sector and enhance soil organic matter on tillage farms.

Clearly the dividend from refocusing on the importance of a balanced agricultural sector, one which has our tillage sector at its core, is obvious – from the perspective of tackling both economic and environmental sustainability. But creating a structure that encourages cross-sectoral integration cannot be left to individual farmers and must be policy-led. Eco-scheme measures and future environmental schemes provide a real opportunity to begin this process at a national level should the ambition exist.