Neal is working on an FACCE ERA-GAS funded international project ‘Integrity’, involving nine countries across South America, Europe and Oceania. Within the project, the PhD programme is looking at the effect of mixed crop-ruminant livestock farming systems, on GHG emissions of beef systems and the effect of oil/fat by-product supplementation methane emissions/animal performance.
Irish agricultural GHG emissions must be reduced by 25% by 2030 and there is a potential to reduce Irish greenhouse gas emissions through locally grown feed sources or mixed cropping systems to increase nutrient circularity in Irish agriculture.
Oilseed rape is a more natural way to decrease emissions through oils/fats present in its by-products as opposed chemical feed additives. It can also be grown in well in Ireland. High oil rapeseed cake is a by-product of cold pressed oilseed rape and methane reductions/animal performance will be tested in beef cattle using this rapeseed cake and rapeseed oil.
Neal comes from a beef farm in Ballyhaunis, Co.Mayo. In terms of a career background, he graduated with an agricultural science degree at University College Dublin in 2018 and has experience as an agricultural advisor. He returned to post graduate education in 2021 to complete a masters in Agri-food sustainability and technology with the University of Galway. He received high quality training to improve research writing skills, knowledge on sustainability and climate change mitigation, and data analysis. Placement was carried out at the Genetics and Biotechnology where he established a platform to grow commercial quantities of yeast that was used in an animal feeding trial in pig nutrition. Establishing and following protocols for optimal yeast production. He gained skills in biochemical evaluation of yeast, feed, and animal samples. He believes making animal production more sustainable is important and was happy to have accepted the Walsh scholar fellow in which he started in January 2023.
