Our young farmers need to embrace ‘disruption’
Innovation and generational renewal will be essential as agriculture faces new challenges on many fronts, Macra president Thomas Duffy tells conference
The realities of ‘disruption’ should be embraced by young farmers, president of Macra na Feirme told members at the organisation’s annual conference last weekend.
The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Disruption in Agriculture’, with Thomas Duffy pointing out that its young farmers shouldn’t see disruption as something negative.
“We have trade deals and increasing political uncertainty to thank for all of the challenges we have seen in more recent times.
“However, disruption doesn’t have to be a negative force for young people. Young people are in a position where we are not the status quo. We hope to be the future of this entire sector. To do so we need to embrace disruption,” said Mr Duffy.
He added that challenges facing young farmers include climate change and negative public perceptions about agriculture and that in order to face them full-on, young farmers must constantly innovate.
“We are coming under increasing criticism and increasing scrutiny from many different sectors — we can’t avoid these things. We can live up to our reputation and tradition in Irish agriculture of constantly innovating, but there will be no silver bullets.
“We have to be constantly adopting new information and technology,” he said.
“Macra is constantly pushing for renewal and futuristic solutions to technical challenges which are coming now and in 20 years’ time.
“We need to look at what our members are facing, maybe
Tariffs on Irish butter exported to the US may not be resolved until an election in the US in 2020, CEO of Dairygold Jim Woulfe ( pictured) has said.
Speaking at the annual Macra na Feirme conference in Corrin, Co Cork, Mr Woulfe said one of the biggest disrupters in recent times was the announcement by the US that it is imposing 25pc duties on Irish dairy products due to an ongoing dispute between Boeing and Airbus.
“The US/EU trade war impacted us hugely. There’s a 25pc tariff imposed on Kerrygold butter going to the US that is manufactured in Mitchelstown.
“There’s 25pc on Jarlsberg cheese not today or maybe not tomorrow but for when they become established farmers in their own right.”
Generational renewal
Mr Duffy also pointed out that generational renewal is key for the sector as without it the industry will “stagnate”.
He said that Macra would manufactured in Mogeely. In trying to be progressive in adding value for premium new markets, all of a sudden the US/EU challenge, the Airbus vs Boeing issue is impacting Dairygold.
Vegans
be pushing sexed semen as a possible solution to the calf welfare issue and Teagasc’s MAAC climate change roadmap to promote increased environmental efficiency amongst farmers.
One such farmer who has started embracing social media is British dairy, sheep and beef farmer Tom Pemberton from Lancashire ( pictured).
Mr Pemberton told Macra members how he garnered his 100,000 followers on YouTube and how he thinks farmers need to get better at telling their story to consumers on
“There’s uncertainty, we don’t know when it’ll be solved. It’s hanging on probably an election in the US which doesn’t happen until the end of 2020. No matter how well you are planning, you couldn’t have anticipated what is happening between Boeing and Airbus would impact dairy.”
Macra president Thomas Duffy says young farmers can thrive on the challenges coming their way
social media.
“My farm isn’t the cleanest farm in the world but I’m just showing how it is. “People really like it and ask questions about why we do things. There is a lot of scaremongering out there about what does happen and I want to show how we do it,” he said. “We are putting ourselves out there but people like honesty. I’m just a standard farmer. Farmers could post about what they are doing for the environment more on social media and really aim it towards the general public.”
As the theme of the conference was “Disruption in Agriculture”, Mr Woulfe pointed out that the vegan and alternative dairies theme was a disruptor and the industry needs to get better at defending itself against these groups and trends.
“The vegan group and the alternative dairy are small in percentage but really noisy and well able to get their message across. As an industry we need to be able to defend ourselves better because there’s a question mark on their nutritional value not to mind their cost.
“Science should win out. The one thing that is for sure with the alternatives is that they are very good at debating but have a narrow feed of knowledge.”
Stocking rates and grassland fertiliser usage are the biggest contributors to biodiversity loss on dairy farms, Donal Sheehan, Director of the BRIDE project, has said.
Donal and a group of farmers set up BRIDE (Biodiversity Regeneration in a Dairying Environment) last year in an effort to improve biodiversity on their farms.
Speaking at the Macra conference in Corrin, Co Cork, Mr Sheehan said stock numbers are the biggest hindrance to biodiversity loss and need to be addressed.
“I’m in derogation. The stocking rate is still high. The biggest contributor to biodiversity loss is stocking rate. Stocking rate is driven by high nitrogen usage because perennial rye grass is dependent on high nitrogen usage,” said Mr Sheehan.
“When we talk about grassland, there’s very little biodiversity in it. When we talk about grass-based systems, it contributes quite a bit to biodiversity loss. That’s why we need to safeguard hedgerows and woodlands on our farms.”
However, grassland researcher at Teagasc, Dr Brendan Horan, refuted Mr Sheehan’s claims and stated that stocking rate as a solution to biodiversity is “too crude an analysis”.
“Stocking rate isn’t going to solve all of our problems, to me that’s too crude of an analysis. Yes if you increase stocking rate you are more intensive and so on you can utilise grass at a relatively high stocking rates I don’t think that contradicts in terms of biodiversity,” said Dr Horan.
“We can have highly productive and efficient grazing systems and also deliver in terms of water quality and biodiversity but it needs focus. You can grow 15 tonnes of grass and stay low in nitrogen and have high levels of productivity. It is being done on farms.”
‘We need to look at what our members are facing, maybe not today or tomorrow but for when they become established farmers in their own right’