Greenhouse Gas Emissions

12 bales of OK bellyfill silage will need a lot of supplement, are we being sold a pup with all the talk of reducing slaughter age to help reduce ag emissions?
I was just using it as an example. if anything younger animals are much more efficient, even under 16month bulls are the most GHG "efficient", i find that impossible to believe especially if some of the ingredients are shifted 5000kms
 
I was just using it as an example. if anything younger animals are much more efficient, even under 16month bulls are the most GHG "efficient", i find that impossible to believe especially if some of the ingredients are shifted 5000kms
Under 16 month bull beef is going to concentrate the kill period with under 30month bullocks and just play into the processors hands, ingredients travelling 5000kms isn't exactly upholding the grass fed beef image, maybe over simplification but the whole thing is a mess.
 
Ya in France where it will sit on the ground for a month getting absorbed into the atmosphere.
This whole thing of year on year targeted paper improvements really bugs me. Previous improvements are instantly forgotten as there's no paperwork in it. This is all about keeping a bloated public sector busy, nothing else.
How about putting half the department staff out to grass, saving a load of money and let the councils properly police pollution.
A few weeks ago someone in Limerick was in court for having put 200 acres of wet silage in a yard and letting the effluent run straight into a stream. The council had photos and expert witnesses but the case went nowhere. That's real pollution and real waterway deterioration. It also harms the rest of us.
Wouldn’t it be more in line for the Councils to clean up their own act before targeting farmers?
I think there’s tens of treatment plants spewing raw untreated sewage into waterways...for which the farmers invariably get blamed.
 
We get the soil tested for N to a depth of 90cm every year. This test is key to how much artificial N I’m allowed to spread every year. Due to the high rainfall since Oct test results are indicating very little residual N, so a N allowance increase is on the cards. They don’t want N depleted soils either...
 
We get the soil tested for N to a depth of 90cm every year. This test is key to how much artificial N I’m allowed to spread every year. Due to the high rainfall since Oct test results are indicating very little residual N, so a N allowance increase is on the cards. They don’t want N depleted soils either...

Do you see these restriction regulations as a challenge, or do you look back over the years and realise the huge amounts of N that you have wasted from a economical POV.

considering you low rates, are you still using granular N? Or are you liquid soil applied or foliar to improve N efficiency
 
Do you see these restriction regulations as a challenge, or do you look back over the years and realise the huge amounts of N that you have wasted from a economical POV.

considering you low rates, are you still using granular N? Or are you liquid soil applied or foliar to improve N efficiency
Use both liquid and granular N.

I was discussing this with the lads at home yesterday. The one issue we agreed upon was that if their allowance for the year was 46units/ac, they’d be waiting until optimum conditions to spread...ie, there wouldn’t be any spread in Jan etc.

Yes I’ve probably wasted an untold amount of N over the years, but would I change anything if I was to farm at home again? Probably not too much...it’s just so easy to ‘spread a bag’ as Teagasc counsel.
There’s untold hassle and work composting fym, growing cover crops, strict rotations etc etc.
Regulations that are draconian do sharpen the mind though!
I posted a pic of traceability tags on artificial fert yesterday and nobody seems to know if they’re on Irish fert also??
Those tags are on all native/imported fert here, so every grain of fert is accounted for.
Thus no false accounting/invoicing.

Spreading of artificial fert, slurry and fym have been pushed out until the 1st of March now...that would probably equate to around the 10th of April in Ireland? Its hard to disagree though.
Pics were taken 30mins ago of a stream that is usually dry by the first week of May.

I know that I’m critical of Teagasc and their guidelines on artificial fert...in the last fodder crisis they were encouraging farmers to spread a bag (ffs, in a near drought) however the decision to guide family farms into dairy production is excellent advice given to small farms on poor quality land. However the future of stocking farms to the hilt and the intensive use of fertilizer to produce 16+t/ha of grass is, imho, unsustainable. It won’t end well, especially as costs constantly creep up and price plateaus at best. One time of day 50 dairy cows gave a comfortable living, what’s it now? 150+? Farms are small and are extremely vulnerable to any climatic irregularities and when your highly stocked and the grass doesn’t grow...?
 

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Use both liquid and granular N.

I was discussing this with the lads at home yesterday. The one issue we agreed upon was that if their allowance for the year was 46units/ac, they’d be waiting until optimum conditions to spread...ie, there wouldn’t be any spread in Jan etc.

Yes I’ve probably wasted an untold amount of N over the years, but would I change anything if I was to farm at home again? Probably not too much...it’s just so easy to ‘spread a bag’ as Teagasc counsel.
There’s untold hassle and work composting fym, growing cover crops, strict rotations etc etc.
Regulations that are draconian do sharpen the mind though!
I posted a pic of traceability tags on artificial fert yesterday and nobody seems to know if they’re on Irish fert also??
Those tags are on all native/imported fert here, so every grain of fert is accounted for.
Thus no false accounting/invoicing.

Spreading of artificial fert, slurry and fym have been pushed out until the 1st of March now...that would probably equate to around the 10th of April in Ireland? Its hard to disagree though.
Pics were taken 30mins ago of a stream that is usually dry by the first week of May.

I know that I’m critical of Teagasc and their guidelines on artificial fert...in the last fodder crisis they were encouraging farmers to spread a bag (ffs, in a near drought) however the decision to guide family farms into dairy production is excellent advice given to small farms on poor quality land. However the future of stocking farms to the hilt and the intensive use of fertilizer to produce 16+t/ha of grass is, imho, unsustainable. It won’t end well, especially as costs constantly creep up and price plateaus at best. One time of day 50 dairy cows gave a comfortable living, what’s it now? 150+? Farms are small and are extremely vulnerable to any climatic irregularities and when your highly stocked and the grass doesn’t grow...?
10th of April? So we should lose half of our driest month of the year because the weather last year was cold not mild like 3 years out of 5 previous? This is why it's ridiculous. One year isn't like another year for us to make a rule on a date of when we can start to farm. Would be very little extensive grazing going on if fert can't be applied until April 10th
 
Look what's being enforced is reduction in production. You can't get what you don't either have in the land or put in the land. We break down N artificially to make it available to plants so we can increase production.
I get what you are saying if it ends up in waterways and causes extra growth, but it is at the end of the day extra growth, that itself ends up as more available N for other life.
Further down the line it'll meet bacteria that denitrify it and it becomes unusable N again which we'll in turn take back out from the air.
Is there anything to be said about a trickle feed of N into the environment, surely seeping through the land through the water table to waterways etc spread out over vast area and throughout the year is not as bad as 100000gal of slurry being washed off 20 acres into one stream over one weekend?
 
Look what's being enforced is reduction in production. You can't get what you don't either have in the land or put in the land. We break down N artificially to make it available to plants so we can increase production.
I get what you are saying if it ends up in waterways and causes extra growth, but it is at the end of the day extra growth, that itself ends up as more available N for other life.
Further down the line it'll meet bacteria that denitrify it and it becomes unusable N again which we'll in turn take back out from the air.
Is there anything to be said about a trickle feed of N into the environment, surely seeping through the land through the water table to waterways etc spread out over vast area and throughout the year is not as bad as 100000gal of slurry being washed off 20 acres into one stream over one weekend?

Isnt that what causes fish kills? The N or slurry doesn't poison them. It causes all types of extra plants and algae to grow in the water which removes all of the O2 for the fish and they die from lack of o2
 
Isnt that what causes fish kills? The N or slurry doesn't poison them. It causes all types of extra plants and algae to grow in the water which removes all of the O2 for the fish and they die from lack of o2
Yes that is what causes fish kills from lack of oxygen once the extra vegetation rots. Surely though there would be less growth during the winter so even if there was more nitrate in the water then than desirable(within reason now) that would be a lower risk than the current method of getting everything out after the first 3 dry days in February before the next wet week.
 
Yes that is what causes fish kills from lack of oxygen once the extra vegetation rots. Surely though there would be less growth during the winter so even if there was more nitrate in the water then than desirable(within reason now) that would be a lower risk than the current method of getting everything out after the first 3 dry days in February before the next wet week.


Minimum average water temps in Ireland for winter are 9 degrees. Most plants will grow when temps are above 6 degrees.
 
Just some Frequently asked Q & A's on the Nitrates changes for 2020, wasn't sure where to post them. Admin, please feel free to move them.
 

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I am not paying to read rubbish about herd culls . Take all the tags out of cattle and they will not know who to cull . The Germans culled the Jews by making them register first. Oil takes carbon out of the ground livestock just recycle it.
There is a danger I might go full redneck and put bull bars on the Focus and start knocking Greens and Vegans off their bicycles.
She's totally contradicting her senior minister there.
 
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