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2nd European Life Beef Carbon Farmers Network

Ireland’s innovative farmers met their Italian, Spanish and French counterparts at the 2nd European Beef Carbon farmer network in 2019. The event took place over 3-days in the north-west of Italy between the 15th and 17th of October. The Italian Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis (CREA) organized the network in conjunction with two beef producer associations, Asprocarne and Unicarve. During the network, farmers and advisors went to large beef fattening units and learned how innovative Italian producers, big and small, were mitigating carbon emissions from different stages of cattle production. Visiting innovative Irish, Spanish and French beef farmers presented options to reduce beef carbon footprint and outlined their experiences in implementing different mitigation measures. These carbon reduction measures and the meetings of the network are described in more detail in the 7th Irish Life Beef Carbon newsletter. To view this newsletter please click here

Photo of innovative Life Beef Carbon farmers, advisors and researchers visiting a beef fattening farm in Piedmont, Italy.

Photo of innovative Life Beef Carbon farmers, advisors and researchers visiting a beef fattening farm in Piedmont, Italy.


3rd European Life Beef Carbon Farmers Network

Innovative beef carbon farmers were unable to meet as a group and visit farms in the midst of the global pandemic in 2020 and 2021. However, thanks to webinar technology the Irish network was able to go ahead in a reduced form on Tuesday 4th May, 2021. The multilingual webinar was hosted by Teagasc ConnectEd and supported by leading partners in France, Italy and Spain. Irish beef carbon farmers, Richard Milligan and Gerard McSweeney did virtual walks of their farms at the 3rd European beef carbon farmers' webinar and gave live testimonies. These innovative beef producers outlined how low carbon farming techniques had reduced beef carbon footprint by up to 16% on their farms since 2016. Teagasc specialists and the Technical Director of the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation went through the science behind some low carbon farming practices and breeding technologies. The roll-out of a new low carbon Irish farming programme, the Signpost Farms, was also presented and discussed. The webinar is available online. Click links below to view presentations.

Agenda

17:05 Life Beef Carbon: Shrinking carbon footprints without compromising beef production
Josselin Andurand, European Coordinator, French Livestock Institute

17:15 Irish beef farming: Rising to the climate challenge
Donal O’Brien, Agricultural Systems Researcher, Teagasc 

17:25 Breeding carbon efficient beef cattle with genomics and euro-stars
Andrew Cromie, Technical Director, ICBF

17:40 Lowering emissions from organic nutrients and chemical fertilisers
Mark Plunkett, Tillage Specialist, Teagasc 

18:00 Implementing low carbon practices on innovative beef farms
Martina Harrington, Cattle Specialist, Teagasc

18:10 A Munster beef farmer’s guide to increasing carbon efficiency
Ger McSweeney, Innovative Beef Farmer 

18:25 Climate smart beef farming in Leinster
Ricky Milligan, Innovative Beef Farmer

18:40 The Signpost Farms: Pointing the way to sustainable agriculture
Tom O’Dwyer, Head of Signpost Programme, Teagasc

18:50 Discussion


France 2018 LIFE BEEF CARBON Farmer Network

Short introduction

The 2018 international farm network meeting of LIFE BEEF CARBON was held in Nantes and Rennes from the 11th to 13th of September. A cohort of the 2,000 Innovative farmers from Ireland, France, Spain and Italy attended along with advisors and researchers. The networks testimonies showcased the reduction in participating beef farms carbon footprint.

Picture of LIFE BEEF CARBON farmers, students, advisors and managers attending international network meeting in France

Event details

The inaugural international farm network meeting of LIFE BEEF CARBON was held in Nantes and Rennes from the 11th to 13th of September 2018. A cohort of the 2,000 Innovative farmers from Ireland, France, Spain and Italy attended along with advisors and researchers. At the international farm network, testimonies were provided by each nation and translated into each countries language. Ireland’s farm testimony was provided a member of the Teagasc/IFJ better beef program. The testimony outlined the actions taken as part of the Teagasc/IFJ better beef program to enhance the family farms sustainability and showed how the farm has reduced its beef carbon footprint by over 15%.

A variety of beef farming systems were visited in France over the three days. During these visits, host beef farmers outlined their progress regarding carbon and sustainability. They presented the practical challenges they have encountered to date and improvements they intend to make. Visiting innovative beef farmers discussed action plans with host farmers and the media, and exchanged know-how on assessing sustainability.

The network meeting concluded with presentations to industry stakeholders and the wider public at the Space event in Rennes. The SPACE LIFE BEEF CARBON conference was organized by Institute D’Elevage with support from all partner nations. During the conference, Teagasc researchers described Ireland’s grass-based beef farms and highlighted the mitigation achieved by innovative beef farms. Carbon mitigation achievements were also presented for partner nation’s farms and compared to the overall footprint reduction goal of LIFE BEEF CARBON. The conferences presentations, farmer testimonies and videos can be viewed here

http://idele.fr/filieres/publication/idelesolr/recommends/space-2018-life-beef-carbon-premiers-resultats-retour-deleveur-innovant-et-leviers-dameliorati.html

or

https://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?lang=%2A%2A&page=1&q=life+beef+carbon&qid=cd5c73af-0e3a-456d-956c-2ab9ffa2bc67&searchfrom=header&sort=relevance