Dr.Siobhan Kavanagh from the Signpost Programme is on this week’s Beef Edge podcast to discuss what areas you can focus on to make your farm more sustainable in 2024.
The Signpost programme is a multi-annual campaign to lead climate action by all Irish farmers. The programmes aims to achieve early progress in reducing gaseous emissions from Irish agriculture and to also improve water quality, maintain and in some cases improve bio-diversity, reduce costs and create more profitable and sustainable farming enterprises.
There are two elements to the programme:
- A network of Signpost Farms, which will act as demonstration farms for the programme and sites for carbon sequestration measurements. These will point the way forward towards climate smart farming, and are central to the second element
- The Signpost Advisory campaign which will engage with all farmers and support them to move towards more sustainable farming systems
Siobhan discusses a number of actions such as using protected urea in 2024. Applying Lime and slurry using LESS and incorporating clover are discussed as ways to improve soil fertility and reduce dependence on chemical fertiliser.
Improving grassland management on the farm is important by utilising grass with a paddock system, walking the farm weekly and extending the grazing season to reduce emissions.
Siobhan discusses having a good herd health plan, breeding policy and reducing the age at slaughter and the impact these have on reducing emissions.
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