On Thursday 1 December, TY Students visited Carbery Farm Zero C in Shinagh and Agri Gen anaerobic digester in Timoleague with a view to understanding how both of these initiatives link to TY courses in Farming, Sustainability and Agricultural Science.
Carbery have a world first project for agriculture where they are working to create an economically viable, climate neutral dairy farm by targeting several areas:
· Using clover and multi-species swards to capture carbon within the soil, produce more resilient grass, improve productivity and reduce fertiliser use.
· Trialling different types of diet that change animal digestion, reducing the amount of methane emitted by cows.
· Maintaining and improving biodiversity on the farm and harnessing the natural ecosystem to reduce the reliance on pesticides and fertiliser.
· Sourcing renewable energy where possible to reduce the farm’s reliance on carbon-emitting fossil fuels.
The aim is that this model could be adapted and used in farms across the country.
Students noted the following:
We learned that Carbery sources its milk from Drinagh, Lisavaird, Bandon and Barryroe Co-ops and as a result, all suppliers are effectively shareholders at Farm Zero C.
We learned that codes on dairy products such as “1867” and “1431” indicate that the milk has been supplied by West Cork farms. This helps consumers to support local farmers when choosing own-brand products.
We also learned that policy and financial incentives are essential to help farmers reduce emissions. In terms of biodiversity, from January onwards famers will be able to claim payments for scrubland whereas up to now they were penalised.
Cows can wear collars that act as “fit bits” which monitor their health and wellbeing, when they are coming into heat etc.
When organic waste breaks down it produces methane. Timoleague Agri Gen take waste food from food processing and manure from across Co. Cork and convert it into biogas and electricity through a process called anaerobic digestion. The site produces 500KW of renewable electricity.
Organic waste material & manure feedstock is transported to the site in lorries. This is mixed and heated to increase bacterial activity which break down the waste and create the biogas. This is fed into the National Grid to generate electricity. We learned that there are plans for over 300 anaerobic digesters to be up and running in Ireland over the next five years. The Timoleague model can run on a smaller scale on farms. It is possible for tractors and trucks to run off methane.
The residual by-product after the anaerobic digestion process is known as digestate. Digestate is rich in Nitrogen (N), Phosphate (P) and Potassium (K) and this biofertilizer can be land spread using existing machinery as an excellent substitute for chemical fertilizer.
Ava Scarlett, one of our TY students on the trip, has just qualified for the BT Young Scientists Competition with her project on the production of electricity through anaerobic digestion in microbial fuel cells. Well done to Ava and her teacher Ms. O’Brien!
We would like to thank Aoife, Gavin and Mary-Kate at Carbery, and Derry from Agri-Gen, for their very warm welcome and for sharing their expertise and experience with us. Thanks also to all the students, Mr Fitzgerald, Mary and Ms. Burke. We had a great day out!
