Carbon emissions from cereal and oilseed crops grown in Ireland are among the lowest in the world, attendees at last Thursday’s arable conference organised by CAFRE, the Ulster Arable Society (UAS) and Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) were told.

Addressing the event, Teagasc crops researcher John Spink, highlighted the importance of having local research data to underpin a life cycle assessment (LCA) of emissions from each growing crop.

To standardise the impact of various greenhouse gases on the climate, these emissions are normally expressed as the equivalent of carbon dioxide per tonne of crop output (CO2e/t).

In warmer countries such as Italy and Spain, the carbon footprint of the likes of oats is close to 1,000kg CO2e/t.

However, analysis of data from long term crop systems trials in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) suggests Irish oats have a footprint around the 170kg CO2e/t mark.

A separate LCA using data collected from 48 growers supplying Tirlán in ROI, calculated average emissions of 207kg CO2e/t for oats and 231kg CO2e/t for barley.

“The carbon footprint of what we produce is low. It is the same for oilseed rape – it is low in comparison to others. There is no reason why NI is not the same as ROI,” said Spink.

A key driver in our low emissions is the ability of growers across Ireland to make efficient use of crop inputs and achieve high yields per ha.

Contribution

Research also shows that fertiliser is the main contributor to the carbon footprint of a cereal crop. Using the example of winter wheat, Spink said 48% of the footprint of the crop was related to fertiliser manufacture, while a further 24% is associated with fertiliser application.

That leaves 14% of the carbon footprint due to fuel production and use, while 10% is related to emissions from crop residues. Seed and crop protection products contribute little to overall carbon emissions per tonne.

Straw

Within any growing cereal crop, carbon gets locked up in the plant, so if the subsequent straw is incorporated back into the soil, rather than baled, it inevitably reduces the emissions associated with each tonne of grain.

In the trial work with Tirlán, when allowance was made for straw incorporation, it reduced the average carbon footprint for oats down to only 38kg CO2e/t. In a number of crops emissions were actually at net zero or below, confirmed Spink.

Ploughing

He also debunked any suggestion that ploughing leads to a massive release of carbon from the soil.

“In our cold, wet climate, we found very little carbon emissions due to ploughing,” said Spink. In practice, overall emissions from conventional cultivation techniques are probably slightly higher than when min till is used, given that more diesel is burned etc. However, this is offset by slightly higher yields from a conventional system, so in effect, emissions per tonne are very similar.

A new Sustainable Farming Investment Scheme (SFIS) to replace the Farm Business Improvement Scheme (FBIS), won’t just fund low-emission slurry spreading equipment (LESSE), a senior DAERA official has said.

In a keynote address at last Thursday’s Arable Conference, Dr Rosemary Agnew from DAERA confirmed that the SFIS will principally focus on supporting farmers investing in technology and equipment to lower carbon emissions and nutrient losses.

“It is not just LESSE going forward. It isn’t another slurry tanker scheme. The details are still being worked through,” she said. The SFIS is due to be launched towards the end of 2025.

FwN

Ahead of that, a pilot Farming with Nature (FwN) scheme is to be launched by DAERA Minister Andrew Muir at the 2025 Balmoral Show.

Some of the actions within that scheme include planting cover crops and maintaining winter stubble, so it is potentially an opportunity for growers to claw back some farm support after seeing their area payments cut to fund new beef schemes.

“We want Farming with Nature to become an enterprise on the farm,” Agnew said.

“It will be a simple scheme. I would encourage you, when a scheme opens, to apply.”

Report

Despite the general concern of many local growers that they tend to be well down the list of priorities for DAERA, Agnew argued that new policies coming forward address many of the recommendations made in a joint UFU/UAS report published in 2021.

Of the 12 main recommendations from that report, eight are being delivered, said Agnew. The other four actions, covering issues such as land tenure, labour, plant protection products and marketing of NI produce, are beyond the scope of DAERA policies relating to farm support.

Regardless of that, Agnew said the Department was open to thoughts and ideas on how to grow the arable sector in NI. “We are starting with a blank page,” she said. However, she also pointed out that it takes at least two years to develop and roll out a policy, given staff pressures in DAERA, other priorities and the need to get all the various approvals and regulations in place.

Ringfenced budget for future years

At the end of 2024, the Stormont Executive agreed to ringfence a £332.5m budget for farm support in NI across 2025-2026 “and future years”.

That total is the same amount received by DAERA from the UK Treasury in the current financial year, so there is no uplift for inflation, even though a request was made by Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir. Despite that, the ringfenced budget for the next financial year and beyond, “is a very significant and important step” given that no other devolved government has made a similar commitment to farmers, said Dr Rosemary Agnew.

Area based

In the short to medium term, the bulk of that funding will continue to come in the form of area based payments. In 2025, the current basic payment scheme is being replaced by a Farm Sustainability Transition Payment, before the full roll-out of a new Farm Sustainability Payment (FSP) in 2026. By that stage, as well as new beef schemes, some of the funding is likely to have been moved into the Farming with Nature scheme.

“Our policy intent is that the FSP is not an income support payment but a safety net for farm businesses to give them stronger resilience to external shocks,” said Agnew.

She added that DAERA intends applying a progressive cap on the FSP, starting at £60,000, although officials are yet to take Minister Muir’s view on that. If implemented, it would reduce the maximum payment from £190,000 in the current BPS, down to a limit of £116,000 in the new FSP.

Analysis of data shows that earthworm populations in arable soils cultivated using min till techniques tend to be significantly higher than when conventional cultivation is used.

The studies compared the mass of earthworms per sq. metre in soils at Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) sites at Hillsborough and Crossnacreevy.

The soil at Hillsborough had been cultivated using a min-till approach, while at Crossnacreevy, conventional ploughing etc, was undertaken. Earthworm populations at the Hillsborough site were around five times that of the Crossnacreevy study.

According to AFBI researcher, Dr Archie Murchie, the results do highlight that earthworms are vulnerable to damage from conventional tillage. However, he said populations can recover quickly, especially if there is sufficient organic matter in the soil.

There is also a range of different earthworm species and collectively, they help to aerate the soil and release nutrients for crop growth.

Dutch research in 2014, which reviewed studies from around the world, showed that earthworm presence in soils increases crop yields by an average of 25%.

Two years of trials are being undertaken at AFBI Crossnacreevy to develop an agronomic toolkit for Mallow, a novel crop which has potential to be used as a feed additive in livestock diets, including pigs.

According to PhD student, Patrick Herron, Mallow can increase the immune response in animals, thereby reducing the need for antibiotic use.

The crop was first sown at Crossnacreevy in 2024 and that work showed it was necessary to have a seed rate of at least 25 plants per sq metre and apply at least 50kg nitrogen per hectare to achieve a significant yield.

The problem issue of mycotoxins in cereal crops is being investigated by Naoise McKenna, a PhD student at AFBI Crossnacreevy.

Her study is principally focused on mycotoxins produced by Fusarium fungi in oat crops. She maintained that around one third of oat samples are now potentially above the maximum mycotoxin level allowed for food grade oats.

“There is a need to find a toolbox for NI arable farmers. There is little varietal resistance and Fusarium is hard to see,” said McKenna.

Her work has looked at the impact of 10 different fungicides on mycotoxin levels, but has found no significant reductions, with one product actually resulting in a significant increase in Fusarium. She has also assessed different plant growth regulators and various nitrogen application rates.

In general, shorter plants tend to have higher rates of Fusarium as they “are closer to the source of infection,” said McKenna.

Also addressing the CAFRE/UFU/UAS Arable Conference was Richard Gilpin, who heads up farming operations at Co Armagh vegetable producer, Gilfresh.

The company employs 165 full-time staff in vegetable processing and packaging, with 20 full-time staff also working on two Gilfresh farms, one of which is situated in ROI. In addition, there are 10 growers supplying Gilfresh, two of which are in ROI.

In total, over 1,000ac of vegetables are grown each year, of which 340ac are carrots, followed by 155ac of scallions and 135ac of both pumpkins and swedes. There is also a further 785ac of forage crops grown in rotation, 400ac of which is maize.

An anaerobic digester at the Gilfresh base outside Loughgall provides all the energy requirement for the factory and heat for glasshouses and staff accommodation.

That reliance on renewable energy “is a big selling point when retailers come to visit,” said Gilpin.

He outlined how the company has to continually meet various standards around employment law and is a member of a number of farm assurance schemes, including Red Tractor, Global Gap, GRASP and Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF).

Gilpin said the company had “reluctantly” joined the LEAF scheme in 2016, but had seen a huge benefit from membership, including around encouraging pollinators. In addition, carbon benchmarking has helped him identify waste on the farm and ultimately, lower his costs.

Gilfresh is also one of 18 farms across the UK working with M&S and agri-tech start-up company, AgriSound, as part of a project to track pollinators. AgriSound uses listening devices to monitor the density of bees and other insects.

That work has shown that pollinator activity around hedgerows is just as good, if not better, than specially grown pollinator strips, said Gilpin.

Challenges

Among the challenges for the business going forward is access to labour and also land. Gilpin said he has various land tenure agreements in place, from a single year to a 10-year lease.

“The tax relief in the South to encourage long term leasing does allow us to develop a suitable crop rotation on that land,” he said.