Letter: Bord Bia and Teagasc failing grain growers

Ollie Whyte, Naul, Co Dublin

Dear Editor: All the big farm organisations will get behind campaigns on regulation, bureaucracy, but on cheap unregulated animal feed imports, they will remain selective as they have done for years.

Yes, the damage done to vegetable growers facing cheap imports will rightly get backing.

The new Mercosur deal, where it concerns beef coming from South America will be strongly opposed and rightly so.

The selective part is when the same arguments are made relating to GMO maize, soya, and palm kernel coming from these third countries for the last 30 years, all these farm organisations conveniently go to ground.

The truth is no other sector, agriculture or otherwise, has to face this grossly unfair competition.

The difference in standards is well-known by all in authority and by the big farm organisations.

Very quickly, the answer trotted out is we can’t produce enough here to supply market needs, so we have to import. But is this simple solution really correct?

The answer is emphatically no. Why are we importing environmentally destructive produce instead of EU produce? The answer is because it’s cheap.

Teagasc research shows that by switching from standard dairy with imports over to full native ration, the carbon footprint of the milk reduces 33%.

That’s a staggering result and is on the record for all to see. Cow performance was marginally lower and cost slightly higher.

Environment

Bearing in mind that climate change and environment are supposed to be drivers of all EU and Department of Agriculture policy, you would think that switch would be pursued vigorously by the Department and our State advisory service, Teagasc.

Part of the brief of Teagasc from Government is the responsibility to promote structures, inputs and methods on farms that will lower carbon footprint and other emissions in agriculture to meet the targets set for 2050.

Their response is to ignore the results of their research and continue to recommend livestock feed that has proven environmentally destructive credentials in preference to high-quality, low carbon, native Irish and EU feed.

Bord Bia

Bord Bia is our State food promotion board and, again, it continues to fail our native grain and pulse producers. For years, it magically turned all dairy feed into grass and no mention of rations, native or imported.

There’s no mention of the thousands of tonnes of imported feed that are entering the food chain each year. Its charter states sustainable source of inputs, protection of environment and full and accurate traceability with all Origin Green labelled food.

Irish and EU grain and pulses should be a no-brainer recommendation for all in authority.

Under every climate change and environmental heading, tillage is the leading agricultural sector by a country mile and the only sector already close to meeting the 2050 targets.

If we are to have a strong and healthy tillage sector in the future, we need a fundamental change in thinking.

The disrespect shown by all authorities and big farm organisations towards Irish and EU standard grain has to stop and time for that starts now.

In response to the letter, a spokesperson for Bord Bia told the Irish Farmers Journal that within the framework of the quality assurance programme as much recognition as possible is given to the lower carbon footprint of Irish grains.

“The Bord Bia carbon footprint calculation for beef and dairy relies on self-reporting from farmers. It is unreasonable to expect a farmer to know the source country or countries of the grains in the compound feed given to animals.

“In addition, the availability of data on feed mixes and source ingredients can be challenging to collect due to the commercially sensitive nature of this information and because feed mixes are prone to frequent formulation changes in response to price fluctuation of ingredients.

“Instead, the carbon model is based upon a standardised feed formulation, which is a widely accepted method for accounting for emissions in concentrate feeding.”

Collaboration

“As part of the ongoing collaboration between Bord Bia, Teagasc and ICBF, the carbon models are subject to an annual update to allow for inclusion of new carbon footprint research and data.

“An upcoming update to the carbon footprint methodologies will include a revised concentrate formulation mix for different cattle types at different growing stages.

New research due to be published this year by Teagasc on emissions from Irish grain will be included in a later model update

“The ingredients included in the mix will be linked to importation data which will reflect the emissions associated with the growing, harvesting, transportation, processing, and land use change of the individual ingredients.

“New research due to be published this year by Teagasc on emissions from Irish grain will be included in a later model update, which will improve the accuracy and reporting of the greenhouse gas emissions from Irish grains.

“Bord Bia continues to work in collaboration with the tillage industry in any areas we can support. For example, Bord Bia is an active member of the Food Vision tillage group and has also carried out research projects on behalf of the tillage sector.

“On many occasions, Bord Bia has had discussions with the tillage industry with a view to developing a sustainable quality assurance scheme for tillage farmers. The response from the industry was that the current Irish Grain Assurance Scheme (IGAS), operated by CropSure, is fit for purpose and serving Irish tillage farmers well.

“Finally, it is important to note that Bord Bia cannot impose rules on farmer members related to the origin of their animal feed, as this would be considered a distortion of competition and trade within the EU.”

The carbon footprint estimates published for the Teagasc Johnstown Castle winter milk systems at the 2022 open day have been taken out of context, a Teagasc spokesperson said in response to the letter.

“The winter, or liquid milk, systems in Johnstown Castle are autumn calving and are not nationally representative; winter milk producers make up a relatively small share of the national milk pool around 12%.

“Most dairy farmers operate spring-calving, grass-based systems and produce milk destined for the commodity markets instead of the liquid milk market.

“The demand for imported protein in spring-calving dairy systems is much lower than winter systems as most milk is produced from grazed grass, which already has sufficient levels of protein, unlike silage or hay.

“Therefore, it is very unlikely that switching from imported feeds to native grains will lead to a 33% reduction in the carbon footprint of Irish milk.

“Concerning the emissions figures for maize, the first lifecycle assessment (LCA) model certified by the Carbon Trust for Irish dairy farms used the highest emissions value for maize in the footprint expert database. This database was provided and recognised by the Carbon Trust.

Standard concentrate feed formulations for a range of concentrate feeds were created after consultation with the feed mills

“At the time, the model was developed, and for a number of years after, little maize was imported from South America according to international statistics (FAOSTAT, 2023).

“To calculate the emissions embodied in concentrate feed you need to know:

Database

“Currently, we do not have access to a database that has the capacity to record the quantity, formulations, and country of origin of the range of concentrate feeds imported at an individual farm basis.

“In the absence of this system, standard concentrate feed formulations for a range of concentrate feeds were created after consultation with the feed mills.

“The country of origin for each feed ingredient and proportion of each ingredient imported from each country is sourced from the CSO animal feed trade database.

“It should be noted that whilst this is the best source of information available, it is imperfect as it is at a national level rather than farm level and does not distinguish the destination of the ingredients.

“Now that we know the country of origin and the proportions sourced from each country, the lifecycle assessment model uses the AgriFootprint 6.3 database to determine the greenhouse gas emissions associated with each ingredient. This includes greenhouse gas emissions associated with land use change, (eg deforestation) in the last 20 years for that proportion of the crop grown on that land.

“For example, in the most recent version of the AgriFootprint database, maize from Brazil has a footprint of 1,339kg CO2 eq/t, which is made up of direct emissions of 339kg CO2 eq/t and land use change (deforestation) of 1,000kg CO2 eq/t. The latter being a weighted average for the proportion of the crop grown on land deforested in the past 20 years.

Footprint

“Teagasc has recently developed an Irish tillage life cycle assessment model in which the greenhouse gas intensities of Irish grains have been reported.

“The study found that Irish grains had a much lower footprint than imported feed such, as maize.

“Going forward, identifying the formulation and the country of origin of ingredients in concentrate feed used at farm level will be important to show the greenhouse gas mitigation achieved by farmers.”