Teagasc has announced a collaboration with animal nutrition company Devenish.

The public-private partnership will see the two organisations work closely together to demonstrate and deliver cutting-edge technologies by supporting farms and the agricultural industry reach tightening environmental targets.

Teagasc will site carbon monitoring technology at Dowth, which will then become part of the National Agricultural Soil Carbon Observatory, contributing to building the national database and models for assessing soil carbon sequestration.

Carbon emissions

It will also support Devenish’s Agrinewal programme, which accurately measures carbon emissions and sequestration to give farmers the power to improve their carbon balance.

Other co-operation will see Teagasc license its carbon farming services to Devenish, while Devenish will provide data on its farm performance, including environmental indicators.

Under the deal, the Devenish research farms at the global innovation centre in Dowth, Co Meath, and Aclare, Co Sligo, will be included as SignPost demonstration farms.

It will operate under a co-designed sustainability plan built around the implementation of sustainable technologies.

This will allow Ireland to be one of the first in the industries to differentiate its produce as more sustainable and lower carbon than that produced by other nations, according to Teagasc and Devenish.

It will allow both organisations to work together under the SignPost Programme, a campaign to prompt climate action by all Irish farmers and designed to achieve early progress in reducing emissions from Irish agriculture while also improving water quality and biodiversity.