As Irish farmers work to reduce emissions, improve biodiversity and habitats and ultimately meet the Government’s climate targets, diverse income streams need to be part of the plan, a world expert has urged .

Speaking on an Around the Editor’s Table webinar with Irish Farmers Journal editor Justin McCarthy, senior vice-president at the World Wildlife Fund Jason Clay said dairy farmers in the US produce milk, but they also have other income streams which will help the environment and spread income risk and that this is needed in Ireland too.

They’re doing it increasingly with genetics of beef crossbreeds with dairy cows, so they’re getting graded US prime

He explained that US dairy farmers now produce 15% of the country’s beef.

“They’re doing it increasingly with genetics of beef crossbreeds with dairy cows, so they’re getting graded US prime, but they’re also producing renewable energy with biogas digesters. There are 200 under construction right now and they’re producing N, P and K and liquid ammonia as nutrients that are coming off those biogas digesters.”

He went on to describe the advantage this provides when the price of milk drops and how an income from electricity can keep income flowing.

Untapped potential

Clay described how anaerobic digestion has huge untapped potential, particularly in the dairy sector to produce energy, improve accuracy of nutrient application to land and to provide a new income stream on farms and in communities.

“The one thing about cow manure is, it is the perfect growth medium to produce energy. The biogas digester, if you’ve got cow manure in it then you can add any other kind of food waste, lawn trimmings etc into that,” he said.

You don’t know what nutrients are actually in manure when you apply it to a field

The wildlife and markets specialist noted that taking manure from one farm or multiple farms, as well as food waste from industry or communities, can lead to impressive results. Clay described nutrient availability from manure as hit and miss and explained how anaerobic digestion can lead to more efficient use of nutrients.

“You don’t know what nutrients are actually in manure when you apply it to a field. When it comes out of a biogas digester you know exactly how much nitrogen or how much P or K or liquid ammonia is in it and then you can apply it as needed.

“That would be something I would really look at in Ireland because you’ve got a lot of smaller farmers that can come together and create a kind of community-based biogas digester which can be larger than any of those farms can support themselves.”

Clay was clear that it shouldn’t be an “either/or” approach, but it should be an “and/and” approach. The focus on policy needs to be on multiple income streams including things like carbon sequestration, biodiversity and renewable energy.