Irish farmers are “ready, willing and able” to play their part to help Ireland achieve its climate change ambitions, Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) president Tim Cullinan has said.

However, the farming sector “will not become the sacrificial lamb” he warned, “where cutting agricultural activity is seen as a fast-track solution to reducing overall national emissions”.

Cullinan, opening the organisation’s climate summit in Thomond Park, Limerick, on Tuesday, highlighted how farmers were taking action, with use of protected urea up almost 60% in 2022 compared with 2021 and almost half of all slurry now being spread using low emissions techniques.

“This proves that farmers will step up when given the opportunity, along with appropriate support and advice,” he said.

He described the 25% emissions cut for agriculture as “hugely challenging”, but insisted that farmers are putting their shoulder to the wheel to help reduce emissions.

“Listening to recent policy proposals at both national and European level, there is a clear agenda to reduce agriculture and food production in any way possible,” Cullinan said.

Land loss

The IFA’s chief economist Tadhg Buckley told the conference that Government policies are effectively taking 384,700ha or 9% of the total land area from existing livestock farming systems. That’s excluding rough grazing and commonage land.

Planned increased forestry planting would take out 68,500ha, while the area required for the Government’s fast-tracked anaerobic digester network would amount to 115,000ha.

A further 80,000ha is earmarked for a planned reduction in farming intensity on drained organic soils.

Buckley has already highlighted the impact of the changes to the Nitrates Action Programme, which will hit 28,000ha.

A targeted increase of 51,500ha in the area of tillage will also take land away from livestock farming.

Buckley also warned farmers of other policy issues on the horizon that would affect them, including EU and national biodiversity and nature restoration plans, the EU Industrial Emissions Directive, the Irish land use review and carbon farming.

Research

Laurence Shalloo, Teagasc’s head of animal and grassland research and innovation, told the crowd that research is showing a clear difference between the calculated emissions from cattle and the actual emissions.

Researchers have shown that the carbon footprint of a dairy cow has gone from 1.08kg CO2 equivalent per kg of adjusted milk in calculated emissions to 0.87kg CO2 equivalent in real terms.

Research on feed additives has shown a 46% drop in methane output from the animal, but only for a short time in the day following feeding, so the challenge is to develop a slow release way to cut methane. Finding a feed additive that can be effective for grazing cattle is the target.

Shalloo added that there are positive findings too on the mitigation of emissions from slurry, noting that treating slurry tanks for methane emissions could be very effective, rather than individual cows.

Quotes from the day

Time needed for technology

“We do need more time as an industry. It’s very clear from what came from Frank [O’Mara] and Laurence [Shalloo] today that the technologies are possibly going to be there into the future but we have now legally set deadlines and [carbon] budgets so it’s going to be very difficult for us as an industry to meet those budgets when we’re still waiting for these technologies so that they can be included in the inventory.” – Paul O’Brien, IFA environment chair

Tillage solutions

“We heard today that they’re looking to increase the tillage area by 50,000ha. How? Our single farm payments are being cut back. We’re being asked to do more. We have Food Vision reports being done on sheep, beef, dairy – tillage wasn’t even asked to the table – why is that?

“We could be part of the solution. We hear all about tillage being wonderful but yet we weren’t even asked in to give our contribution. Why were farmers put into different rooms?

“Dairy farmers, beef farmers, sheep farmers, we’re all farming together….Why aren’t we all being put in together. No [they] try to split us up and set wedges between us. We won’t allow that.” – Kieran McEvoy, IFA grain chair

Anaerobic digestion

“It’s going to be very hard to get an anaerobic digestion industry going at scale with the price of land at the moment. On paper it’s easy to say we’ll do all these things but actually where will the land come from?” – Frank O’Mara, Teagasc director

Land prices

“Farmers want to produce but the land market has been distorted due to all the measures put in place that farmers have to have more land base to produce the same amount.

“You [the Irish Farmers Journal] published that land would make €500-€600/ac for conacre. That’s not sustainable as far as I can see. It’s not feasible. Climate action, some of it, is about feasability and sustainability going forward, yet this price is being pushed on farmers and the price is being distorted due to what’s happening in this country with what’s happening at a macroecnomic scale.” – Martin Lonergan, Tipperary

Rewetting

“This is a very, very sensitive issue for the entire midlands, into the west and elsewhere. Landowners are being expected to rewet land and in a lot of cases it ranges from between 30% to 85% of our holdings, and there are thousands. This has the ability to devastate the family farms right across the midlands and into the west.

“The minister should be telling Europe the same as Sweden and other countries have, told them to forget about it and leave the family farm alone. This is herd reduction by the back door again.” – Pat Walsh, Offaly IFA chair