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Government should fund technology and measures to reduce emissions from the cattle herd from now until 2030, according to Easyfix managing director Michael Earls.
He told TDs and senators at a meeting of the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee on Thursday that a fund of €30m to €40m per year would be “sufficient to ensure that Irish farms are the most sustainable farms in the world”.
He said that such an emissions reduction fund should be based on ringfenced funding for direct expenditure on reaching emission reduction targets.
Targets
Earls said bovine methane reduction targets could be achieved “more quickly” through such a mechanism and warned that “any delay in implementation of a dedicated fund will leave Irish farmers with unachievable targets to reach”.
The businessman joined politicians for a discussion on exploring technologies and opportunities to reduce emissions in the agricultural sector.
He said the debate on this to date has “generated more heat than light”, adding that environmental measures for agriculture “should not be a simplistic binary debate that centres on the need to cull the national herd”.
Methane reduction
Earls described how investing in methane reduction technology for Irish farmers can secure emissions reduction without a need to reduce the national herd.
He explained that “when people talk about technology, they often talk about the future potential of technology”, but said that technology already exists and “is possible today”.
He demonstrated the progress made by using rubber mats on slats and Easyfix’s slurry technology.
Earls clarified that the €30m to €40m emissions reduction fund he proposed is based on costings his company has completed, which would enable 70% of Irish cattle farmers to install the rubber mats and slurry technology by 2030.
“The benefits of these two technologies have been proven in farm trials and using actual performance data by the University of Wageningen and peer reviewed by Prof Gary Lanigan in NUI Galway,” he said.
As well as animal welfare and disease control benefits, he said that combined, the technology has been shown to reduce on-farm emissions by 24% and artificial fertiliser use by more than 25%.
On rubber mat use specifically, Michael Earls said a recent Teagasc trial confirmed a 13% increase in cow performance equates to a 19% reduction in methane.
“The most recent trial by Teagasc on the benefits of slat mats showed a 17% increase in animal performance equating to a 24% reduction in methane,” he said.
Slurry technology
The Easyfix managing director told TDs and senators that the company’s slurry technology “deploys a network of pipes throughout the [slurry] tank that injects oxygenated air that helps breakdown the slurry and keep it in a liquid state”.
He said this method of treatment is proven to reduce methane by on average 54% and that trial data from Wageningen University, Netherlands, showed a 51% reduction in ammonia emissions.
“The system also has the added benefit of increasing the nutrient values of the slurry and given the current price of fertiliser coupled with Ireland's target of reducing the use of chemical fertiliser on-farm, optimising the slurry is a must for all farmers.”
Response
Green Party TD Brian Leddin said he agrees with the proposal of an emissions reduction fund “in principle”.
He said: “I do think we should be investing so that we get emissions reduction now. Obviously, any fund that the State would put in place would need to be robust.
"It would need to be transparent and verifiable. I think that is something the State should look at, but also should be careful about.”
He noted that €30m to €40m each year for eight years would be “a lot of money”, but said that if the technology has been proven to work, “there is a strong case for it”.
Process ‘can take years’
Also presenting to the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee on Thursday, Dublin City University (DCU) research assistant Paul R Price disagreed that State investment in such new technologies could reduce bovine methane emissions to the level and within the timeframe needed.
He highlighted that all greenhouse gas (GHG) and ammonia emissions are accounted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in standardised national inventory data. He said this has to be reported to the UN and the EU.
“Therefore, policies and measures are only useful if they can be verifiably accounted in the national inventory, which requires any new technology or emissions measurement update to pass EPA and international peer review.”
He said this process “can take years, whereas mitigation action is needed now”.
Role of quotas
The DCU researcher warned that any increase in milk or beef production now in Ireland will result in “more emissions”.
He said this happened “as soon as the milk quota started to be released from 2010 onward and especially from 2013 onward”.
“Milk production increased rapidly, therefore dairy methane emissions have increased just as quickly, as has nitrogen excretion from dairy cows,” he said.
Price claimed that, therefore, a “quota on production is an effective way to limit inventory emissions”.
“Similarly, we now know that in Ireland, removing the milk quota on dairy production has been an effective way to increase emissions.”
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