Despite significant progress being made in many areas to reduce emissions from agriculture, progress in reducing age of slaughter is “stalling”, Teagasc director Frank O’Mara has said while speaking at the publication of a new performance report on Monday.

The new report is titled Advancing Innovation, Sustainability and Technical Performance of the Agri-Food Sector in 2024.

In terms of improvements, O’Mara highlighted how nitrogen fertiliser use was just 10,000t off the target reduction of 300,000t for 2030 and protected urea made up 27% of straight nitrogen use.

Emissions, he added, fell by 4.6% in 2023 and followed on from a reduction of 0.7% in 2022. However, increases in the preceding years mean that emissions are only down by 2.9% since 2018.

“Progress is being made, but we wouldn’t want to feel we are out the gate. What’s driving those reductions - lower cattle and sheep numbers are a factor, lower milk yield per cow has also reduced emissions per cow.

"I think it’s really important to emphasise that farmers adopting the measure in the marginal abatement cost curve (MACC) have contributed quite a bit to that 4.6% and 0.7% reduction.

“Age of finish was identified as a key measure in MACC. After a decade of reducing age of finish, we felt that could be continued over the current decade, but when we look at where we’ve got to, we’ve got nowhere since 2018,” O’Mara said.

Age of finish was at 26 months in 2018, 26.1 months in 2023 and 26.5 months in 2024. The difference in days between 2024 and 2023 is 11 days. The 2030 target is 21.6 months.

Incomes

In terms of economic sustainability, incomes in all the main farming sectors are estimated to have increased in 2024 compared with 2023. This, Teagasc said, was helped by the higher farmgate prices in the second half of 2024 for milk, beef and sheepmeat and the good grass production and grazing conditions in the autumn/early winter period.

Water quality

In relation to water quality, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report for 2016 to 2021 shows that over half (54%) of Irish surface waters are in good or better ecological status.

The water framework directive requires all EU member states to achieve at least good status in all water bodies by 2027.

Recent EPA data indicates that nitrogen concentration in 20 selected rivers has declined in the first six months of 2024 relative to 2023, which Teagasc has said is welcome.

33% of Irish farmers are aged over 65

The Irish farming population is ageing and the proportion of young farmers has been in decline over recent decades. Data from the Teagasc national farm survey reports that 33% of Irish farmers are aged over 65, with an average age of 58 years.

However, Teagasc has said that over 3,600 students participate in Teagasc education programmes and surveys undertaken five years after graduation consistently show over 90% are involved in farming.

The Walsh scholarship programme and other post-graduate programmes also play a key role by providing highly trained graduates for the sector.

Food sector

Science-driven innovation in the food industry complements good technical performance at farm level in terms of overall performance of the agri-food sector.

In 2024, Teagasc research and innovation delivered significant advancements to the food industry to enhance safety, quality and sustainability, along with supporting a range of new products and processes through knowledge transfer.

Over 150 companies utilised the state-of-the-art pilot plant facilities in the National Prepared Consumer Food Centre and Moorepark Technology Ltd, while 410 entrepreneurs from across Ireland benefited from training and support to scale their businesses through the Food Works and Bia Innovator Programmes.

Teagasc director Professor Frank O’ Mara said: “Good technical performance underpins farm profitability and environmental sustainability.

Weather is a key variable in agriculture and must be kept in mind when interpreting the data.”