Ten farms in Northern Ireland have completed their participation in the international project Dairy 4 Future.
The aim of the Dairy 4 Future project was to increase the competitiveness, sustainability and resilience of dairy farms in the Atlantic area. It was comprised of 12 Atlantic regions from eight different countries, including Northern Ireland; Scotland; England; Wales; Ireland; France; Spain; and Portugal.
It was supported by 11 technical partners and involved 100 pilot farms – 10 of which were Northern Irish dairy farms – and 10 experimental farms.
Northern Ireland’s 10 Dairy 4 Future pilot farmers met at the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise’s (CAFRE) Greenmount campus last month to discuss the results of the project.
Each farmer provided two years of detailed data on the physical and financial performance of their businesses, as well as allowing analysis on their environmental performance and aspects of social sustainability.
The Dairy 4 Future project gave the pilot farmers the opportunity to attend meetings on each other’s farms throughout the project to discuss and compare sustainability strategies.
Strengths and weaknesses
The project has produced a booklet, ‘Lessons learnt from the Dairy 4 Future project’, which documents all the studies carried out and includes the reports and findings.
The key strength, which was identified from analysis across all the regions, was the optimum temperate climate with adequate precipitation to allow good grass growth.
The main weakness was the systems’ sensitivity to milk price volatility with low margins, and thus creating difficulties in expansion.
Due to drought risk during the grass growing season and when considering opportunities, global warming was identified major industry threat.
All North Atlantic regions, except for Brittany in France, expect milk volume output to increase to 2030.
Findings
64% of the pilot farms said that their milk contract was favorable to their activity. When asked to give their views on the economic success of the dairy farms, the common challenges found were:
- Workforce availabilty;
- Public perception of dairy farming;
- Access to land;
- and the price of equipment.
Over 70% of farmers said they felt the price of equipment and access to land had a strong impact on their milk production.
A report detailing a blueprint roadmap for low-emission dairy farms in the Atlantic area found a significant difference in the percentage of replacement heifers carried on the farm between farms with a high and low stocking rate, the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) said.
The report also identified a significant difference in the carbon footprint of farms which had a high amount of purchased feed/kg of milk solids compared to farms with a low amount.
Important factors identified for low-emission dairy farms were land availability; replacement heifer rate; and precision farming practices.
The full ‘Lessons learnt from the Dairy 4 Future project’ booklet can be found on CAFRE’s website.
The college extended its thanks to the 10 Northern Irish farmers for their participation in the project, especially their “willingness to provide information and their continued involvement and enthusiasm throughout the project”.
