Fertiliser reductions can often be easier done on beef farms than dairy farms, a webinar on lowering emissions from pasture-based systems in Ireland heard on Friday morning 15 March.

Principal research officer at Teagasc's Solohead Farm Dr James Humphreys highlighted during Friday's Signpost webinar how beef farms can also be part of the collective effort to reduce emissions.

Humphreys discussed the LoCAM-dairy (lowering the carbon and ammonia footprints of pasture-based dairy production) project which is taking place at Solohead currently.

No surprise

"It's no surprise that around 57% of nitrogen fertiliser is used on dairy farms, but there's still a substantial proportion (33%) of nitrogen fertiliser used on beef farms. You could argue that reducing fertiliser on these beef farms is a much easier step to take than it is on dairy farms.

"The point I'm trying to make is that if we are going to use fertiliser to cut emissions, it can't just be on dairy farms - it needs to be across the board and I think there are economic benefits to go along with that," he said.

In terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), cutting nitrogen fertiliser usage on farm is the low hanging fruit, he maintained.

"If we were to work towards zero nitrogen fertiliser use on grassland farms in Ireland... we've seen in Solohead that we can maintain and get higher profitability. It would lower national GHG emissions by 10% and ammonia emissions by 24%.

"We would achieve the same level of national output and export value and it would have a positive impact on balance of payments," he said.