Better uptake of existing animal health and husbandry technologies and practices can reduce emissions by as much as 18% to 30%, the Nuffield Ireland conference heard on Friday.

Cavan native Lance Woods was one of a number of Nuffield scholars who presented the findings of their research at the annual conference in Co Carlow.

Woods set out how animal health was linked to greenhouse gas emissions and made a number of recommendations based on his international travel over the past year.

Animal health, he told the audience, affects emissions intensity by way of reduced production efficiency and what is referred to as “unproductive emissions”, related to mortality and morbidity.

International research shows that morbidity, or sickness, in an animal reduces their production efficiency, diminishes the growth rate and liveweight of animals and leads to lower efficiency in feed utilisation, as well as lower reproductive performance and milk yields, Woods said.

Animal health

He told the Nuffield audience that animal health will play an integral role in successfully achieving Ireland’s climate change targets.

Woods, who works with MSD Ireland as ruminant marketing manager, made a number of recommendations based on his studies, the first being that the industry should use the tools already available to it.

An increased uptake of existing animal health and husbandry technologies and practices can reduce emissions by 18% to 30%, he said.

Education and awareness of the effect of ill-health on emissions is critical, Woods added, while he also recommended that the industry study the adoption of agri technology and the obstacles to it.

He called for incentives for the adoption of vaccines and maintained that further research is required in how to reduce emissions at source, from animals.

Woods received the inaugural Nuffield Ireland Padraig Walshe award, given for the best presentation by a returning scholar, as voted on by the conference attendees.