TResearch Articles 2023
Beyond Peat is a five-year DAFM-funded research project aiming to identify potential peat alternatives for Irish horticulture. To highlight the work being done to meet that challenge, we spoke to the core Beyond Peat Mushroom team: Senior Research Officer Helen Grogan, Technologist Brian McGuinness, Specialist Advisor Donal Gernon, and Research Officer Eoghan Corbett.
Social sustainability is a measure of human welfare, with both internal dimensions, which relate to the individual, and external, which concern community-oriented issues around values and the demands of wider society.
A collaboration between Teagasc and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute is aiming to better understand viral-bacterial interaction in the poultry gut and its effect on food safety.
Teagasc’s Rural Economy and Development Programme (REDP) strives to make an impact on the agri-food sector by bringing together several streams of work at different disciplinary, strategic and temporal scales. As part of its latest peer review process, the REDP team selected six case studies that realised the programme’s objectives.
Recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) is a sustainable packaging alternative to support the circular economy using recycled materials and minimising waste. The team behind the Leaf No Waste project at Teagasc Ashtown is currently investigating and trialling the use of novel rPET for fresh produce packaging using an automatic thermoformer and tray sealer.
Horticulture and Entomology Senior Research Officer Michael Gaffney is helping to lead a collaborative Teagasc project to automate pest control practices and tackle the ever-important issue of food security.
At the forefront of Irish fruit production for nearly a century, Keelings remains committed to providing locally grown produce while facing the challenges of today.
The Moorepark St Gilles Grass Growth Model, or MoSt GG for short, enables farmers to access detailed data to more accurately predict grass growth and adequately prepare for periods of poor growth.
The sexed semen lab at Teagasc Moorepark is helping to increase the availability of sex-sorted semen from large teams of dairy bulls of a high genetic index. Sexed semen allows greater reliability when predetermining calf sex, which can help bolster the Irish beef and dairy sectors.
Seeking to bolster the market for Irish apples, a new screening project will develop in-depth blueprints of customer preferences, allowing growers to focus on producing the most desirable varieties.
Dermot Callaghan, Head of the Horticulture Department, examines some of the challenges and opportunities facing the horticulture sector.
Teagasc’s researchers attend many events throughout the year, sharing the findings from their research with national and international audiences. Here, we capture the take-home messages – key pieces of information that our researchers want people to remember – from recent events.
The SeaHealth Project aims to provide new insight and technical know-how for the seaweed processing sector to develop high-value functional prebiotic ingredients from raw biomass.
Pillar I Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) support represents a significant proportion of income for certain cohorts of the farming population. Researchers at Teagasc set out to examine what the changes to how the support is distributed mean.
Here, Pat Dillon, Director of Research at Teagasc, explains how Teagasc’s Climate Action Strategy 2022-2030 is focused on reducing GHG emissions from agriculture.
The infant formula market is of huge importance to the Irish dairy industry. Maintaining our excellent reputation is key to the economy, and this includes responding to increased chlorate residue levels in milk, which has health concerns for infants. Teagasc has been key to establishing world-class testing facilities in Ireland.
Teagasc’s understanding of the science behind the presence of oligosaccharides in milk can lead to improved dairy products.
As part of the GenESIS project, Teagasc is using genomic and phenotypic data to understand the nature of adaption and evolution in the North American Sitka spruce tree. This knowledge can then be implemented through the GenESIS research when breeding new and improved trees in Ireland.
A resurgence of interest in Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) comes at a time when Europe is seeking to provide more sustainable and healthier diets for its population.
Teagasc’s genetics team plays a crucial role in both the environmental and economic success of dairy, beef and sheep herds.
Norina Coppinger graduated with a BA in European Studies, Social Research & Spanish from the University of Limerick in 1993, and is now a Campus Administrator at Teagasc Athenry. Here, Norina talks about her career highlights and her love for travelling.
Work carried out at Teagasc Moorepark suggests that once-a-day milking does not impact Cheddar cheese composition and can improve cheese yield and some sensory and nutritional attributes.
Experts at Teagasc have been using life cycle assessment, an internationally recognised methodology, to calculate the environmental performance of average sheep systems in Ireland and to determine the effect of recommended practices.
The sheep industry is facing challenging times, with increased input costs, resistance to parasitic infection treatments and pressures to meet greenhouse gas targets. While genetics are not the silver bullet, they are a proven solution.
Researchers at Teagasc are looking at the basics of dendrochronology in forestry research – using tree ring analysis to explore the impact of climatic stress on tree growth performance and physiological responses.
Climate change, the energy crisis and the drive for agricultural sustainability have moved anaerobic digestion centre stage. Teagasc researchers are investigating and eliminating bacterial, viral and parasitic pathogens in feed stock and digestate.
Teagasc’s researchers attend many events throughout the year, sharing the findings from their research with national and international audiences. Here, we capture the take-home messages – key pieces of information that our researchers want people to remember – from recent events.