ABP Supporting Sustainable Beef Systems
The beef sector remains a mainstay in rural communities with 90,000 farm families and 25,000 jobs supported. It is estimated that the sector generated almost €7 billion for the wider rural economy in 2023. The Irish beef sector has successfully built an internationally renowned reputation as a supplier of high-quality, grass-fed beef to more than 75 markets globally. The sector has focused strongly on optimising the value of output while investing to support a sustainable future for the rural economy.
The Irish Beef industry is committed to accelerating sustainability progress made through collaboration with stakeholders such as Bord Bia, Teagasc, Meat industry Ireland (MII), Irish Cattle Breeding federation (ICBF) and most importantly our family farm suppliers. This reflects the direction of the National Climate Action Plan and increasingly, marketplace sustainability commitments, while fulfilling the nutritional and health needs of consumers. Delivering on these while remaining competitive will be critical to secure an environmental, economic, and socially sustainable platform for the future development of the sector.
Consistent progress has been made in reducing emissions intensity at farm level over the last 10 years. Data from the Sustainable Beef & Lamb Assurance Scheme (SBLAS) indicates that the three-year rolling average carbon footprint of beef production has declined by 13% since the 2014 to 2016 period. Based on latest trends in beef production, absolute emissions associated with beef production at farm level over the 2021 to 2023 period are estimated to have declined by 4% relative to 2016 to 2018. Farmers have continued to reduce finishing age with the last decade seeing a drop of over two months for prime cattle. Average data for the 2021 to 2023 period shows an average finishing age of 25.8 months, a drop of 0.6 months relative to 2020. These developments have led to an annual reduction of 400,000 tonnes CO2e compared to 2013.
Considerable progress has been made over recent years to identify genetic traits that help mitigate methane emissions. ICBF in partnership with have developed a carbon sub-index that focuses on methane and age at finish. In addition, the rollout of the national genotyping programme supported by the beef and dairy sectors will see the herd genotyped over the 2024 to 2027 period. This will provide genetic certainty in terms of breeding for climate and the environment. It will allow the enhanced rollout of the Commercial Beef Value to allow farmers make informed decision in terms of the breeding and rearing of cattle for the dairy and beef sectors. Almost 800,000 animals were sampled as part of the National Genotyping Programme during the January to mid-May 2024 period. This equates to over one third of calves born in Ireland in 2024.
Space for nature on livestock farms
Ireland is almost unique in Europe in the fact that it has almost 700,000 kilometres of hedgerows, which cover circa 2.6% of land area. Under the 2023 – 2027 CAP Ireland has the Space for Nature area on all farms. The average Space for Nature for livestock farms stands at around 13% of farm area, which is treble the minimum level required to meet the criteria of the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions under CAP.
Livestock farmers make up the majority of the 55,000 farms participating in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES), which will see €1.5 billion invested in increasing and enhancing habitats over the 2023 – 2027 period. Biodiversity priorities are centred around ensuring farms and processing sites are pollinator and biodiversity friendly. This includes a focus on maintaining the area dedicated to nature and adopting measures to optimise the quality of habitats, which will help maximise the number of beneficial species present and protect water quality. Data from SBLAS shows the ongoing uptake of biodiversity measures across livestock farms over 2023 to enhance the quality of habitats, particularly hedgerows, trees, and field margins.
As part of the Beef industries commitment to enhancing the sustainability of the beef sector, Meat Industry Ireland members have invested almost €200 million in sustainability initiatives at processing and farm level since 2015.
One such example of a company with a strong sustainability ethos is ABP Food Group. The have several sustainability initiatives. One of these is the ABP research farm which acts as a testbed & research farm for ways in which we can improve on-farm sustainability and has been in operation since 2014. Key research is conducted to identify more sustainable farming practices and then translate these findings/practices to their family farm suppliers. With the abolition of milk quotas in 2015, Ireland was on the cusp of exponential dairy herd expansion. This was a major worry for ABP as they were unsure how this would impact the quality and sustainability of their beef for their customers. The other concern was the impact on our beef farmers. The focus of our research is to measure the impact of selecting beef bulls with the highest genetic merit to breed the best quality beef animals from the dairy herd. The work on the farm is a multi-year study using a data-driven approach to improve the beef genetics available to the dairy herd, so that beef animals optimise their feed conversion ratio (grow faster) and are ready for slaughter at a younger age, hereby significantly reducing emissions. 5,000 animals have been involved in the study so far which is verified by independent experts and research institutions.
Recent work conducted by an independent body for ABP calculated that 90% of their carbon emissions come directly from the cattle sourced from our 13,000 farms across the country. Therefore, to meet their environmental targets, they need to drive sustainability through on farm practices and supporting our farm suppliers. The findings from the ABP Farm show that by selecting genetically superior animals, they perform better over their lifetime – essentially making them more carbon efficient. They eat less feed (higher feed efficiency), and they can be slaughtered earlier without any negative effect on carcass weights (output). This has a huge effect on the methane emissions coming from these animals. Results from the ABP Research Farm highlight that carcasses from the best performing sires were 46kg heavier, with a higher carcass value of €249 at same age and reared on the same production system compared to the worst performing sire. Carcasses from the best performing sires also had 13% lower carbon footprint. This shows the importance of selecting beef sires on the dairy herd of high genetic merit to increase on-farm returns and reduce environmental impact. The cost saving benefits of appropriate sire selection and the benefit that genetics can have on driving a more sustainable supply chain is clear from our results. Using the Bord Bia sustainability data, The ABP farm had a 32% lower carbon footprint than the national average and highlights the role improved genetics & farm practices can have on reducing the environmental impact of beef production.
On the back of these results ABP developed the Advantage beef programme which aim is to function as a vehicle to implement some of the key research from the ABP Research farm onto more of their family farm suppliers. The Advantage programme is an integrated sustainability programme which rewards farmers for producing more sustainable cattle and provides advice and support to farms through its farm liaison team.
Key areas of support provided are as follows:
1. Animal breeding/genetics
2. Soil health
3. Proactive animal health
4. Nutrition
5. Grassland management
Family farms within the Advantage programme receive a sustainability bonus for all cattle that meet the specification of the programme. These include key metrics such as maximum age limits, all of life SBLAS qualify assurance, minimum genetics merit standards and the farm is part of a governmental sustainability programme such as ACRES for example. To date over 900 farmers are involved in the programme which is going from strength to strength.
Learn more about the schemes mentioned in this article.
