Gillian Willis is from a sheep, beef and tillage farm in Ballon, Co. Carlow and is currently Graduate Development Manager with Ifac. Gillian studied Food & Agri-Business Management at UCD and completed an MSc in Food Business Strategy at the Michael Smurfit Business School, UCD. She started her career with Burger King Corporate as a graduate in Madrid in 2015 before taking on roles in HR, Project Management and R and D based in Switzerland. Gillian joined Bord Bia in 2018 as Small Business Development Manager before recently joining Ifac.

Gillian’s Nuffield report is ‘Future proofing people management in Irish agriculture’

Executive Summary:

The global agricultural sector is striving to produce enough food to meet the needs of a growing population all while trying to improve its carbon footprint. As the conversations around sustainability in agriculture continue to progress and topics such as biodiversity, water quality, fossil fuel usage, amongst many others are being highlighted there is one key factor that is crucial to supporting farms on their sustainability journey, ensuring that there is a talent pipeline for the agricultural sector.

The overall aim of this study is to look at the attraction, engagement and retention of people employed in the agricultural sector in Ireland. As the Irish jobs market becomes increasingly competitive it is imperative that the agricultural sector remains a desirable one to work in. Thus, steps must be put in place to ensure that it remains appealing whilst also ensuring farmers are equipped with the right supports to successfully manage those employed on farm.

Visiting farms and agri-businesses across the world has highlighted that people challenges are a significant threat to the agricultural sector globally. In Chile, for example, as it goes through a period of economic growth, fewer nationals are living and working in rural areas. As a result, farms in Chile are now becoming more reliant on attracting workers from other South American countries such as Uruguay and Paraguay. Similar people challenges are also at the forefront of the agricultural sector in the UK, where migrant workers are heavily relied upon due to a lack of interest from the domestic workforce. Furthermore, Brexit has made it exceedingly difficult to attract and retain these necessary workers and farmers are now having to identify new ways in which they can attract this talent, while engaging and retaining the people they already have employed. New UK initiatives include the roll out of a module in diversity and inclusion delivered to the farming community with the aim of educating farmers and empowering them when hiring people from more diverse backgrounds.

The main findings of this study are that whilst Irish farmers are aware of the people challenges that are facing them, they are not best prepared to deal with them. The support infrastructure for farmers in Ireland is very strong, it takes the form of dedicated food and agricultural bodies, universities and farming lobby groups who all have the ability to provide farmers with the right supports and framework to manage these challenges. To future proof agriculture in Ireland, it needs to be equipped with an adequate workforce that is equally supported by farmers who are appropriately skilled and empowered to manage those employees.

From this study a number of key recommendations for the industry have been identified. There is a requirement for the educational body Teagasc to create a suite of people management courses to be made available to farmers to support them in upskilling in this area. In addition, Teagasc should consider upskilling its own advisors in the area of people management to have more informed conversations with farmers. Bord Bia, with over 77,000 members in its Quality Assurance programme have a unique opportunity to capture data to inform future people orientated decisions for the sector.

As a whole, to ensure the future proofing of people management in Irish agriculture it is key that the right provisions are put in place to support farmers in attracting, engaging, and retaining the right people to work in their farming enterprises.

Future proofing people management in Irish agriculture

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Liagh grew up on a dairy farm in Laois, later moving to a dry stock farm in Wexford. She spent her formative years outdoors, in the fields, woods, or vegetable gardening, developing a deep and lasting passion for the natural world. As part of her Nuffield Scholarship. Liagh will investigate methods of improving efficiency and sustainability in plant propagation in controlled environments. Liagh holds a BSc and an MSc in Business Management from UCD. Her studies gave her a grounding in environmental issues and biology, but also taught her the realities of operating in a commercial world. Horticulture was an obvious career choice, as growing plants has been a passion since childhood, and she currently works as a grower and assistant production manager in a bedding and pot plant nursery in North County Wexford.

Liagh’s Nuffield report is ‘Sustainable plant production in controlled environments’

Executive Summary:

This research aims to examine the commercial viability of sustainable horticultural practices in controlled environment crop production with regards to new growing technologies and alternative approaches. This is with a primary focus on increasing the efficiency of young plant production (both seed and cutting raised) and the methodologies to do so in the context of an ever more challenging production environment. These include but are not restricted to policy and regulatory changes, fluctuating consumer demands and market trends, labour availability, climate change and economic factors such as rising input costs. Many of these are global issues and as such we have much to learn from our international counter parts.

Teagasc valued horticulture, the fourth largest agricultural sector in 2023 at 521 million euro (farm gate value). Within this controlled environment agriculture contributes both produce for direct human consumption, plants for growing on in field production and plants for amenity usage. Post covid saw a sizable increase in consumer spending on garden related purchases, from woody shrubs and bedding plants to houseplants. Many of us experienced the now well documented mental and physical health benefits of engaging in horticulture during the covid lockdowns of the 2020s and considerable health benefits have been associated with engagement with green spaces.

Key recommendations:
Recommendations need to be considered in the context of the type of system being examined – extensive or intensive. Approaches to growing “cold, slow and low or hot, fast and high”. In controlled environments, growing crops with shorter programme times to optimise space and time requires higher inputs. This increases crop value and volume but also the overall cost of production. The opposite end of the spectrum is growing “slow and cold”, with lower inputs but reduced turnover. Two different approaches dependant on infrastructure, available resources and the crop in question.

During this study 11 countries were visited including, New Zealand, California, Japan, Belgium and The Netherlands. In each, discussions with growers, breeders, government representatives, research agencies and industry suppliers informed the recommendations below. These are equally applicable to finished or young plant producers or systems combining the two.

1.The precision/ targeted usage of inputs to maximise crop results while minimizing costs.

• Fertiliser formulations, application methods and usage
• Water collection and delivery systems
• Energy consumption (e.g. supplemental lighting, heating etc)

2. More targeted crop selection (within the context of meeting market demands)

• To optimize return per square meter based on crop value
• To reduce “downtime” between crops (particularly important in the context of intensive systems)
• Taking environmental changes and pressures into consideration e.g. heat stress, moisture requirements etc (Increased flexibility improves climate resilience).
• Location/ condition specific genetic suitability

3. Greater engagement with non-chemical solutions to reduce dependency on pesticides (Integrated Pest Management (IPM), environmental manipulation etc)

• As alternative pest control methods
• For disease mitigation
• As Plant Growth Regulator (PGR) alternatives

4. Technology, not a dependency but a partnership – for improved production efficiency and less labour dependant systems, effectively reducing long term production costs and improving overall efficiency of systems.

5. There needs to be innovative thinking for practical problem solving, unique solutions for unique situations. To draw a picture, Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) is not a clear field, a fresh start after ploughing, it’s tunnels, glasshouses, warehouses, combinations of all three in a huge range of configurations. This restrict homogonous approaches to crop production and requires solutions more tailored to individual sites.

6. Collaboration within the industry, a highly competitive domestic market often disincentivises information sharing. However, a collaborative mindset was observed from the Netherlands to New Zealand actively benefitting agricultural communities in a variety of ways from improved production outcomes to general industry and personal resilience.

Sustainable plant production in controlled environments

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Thomas Murray from Banagher County Offaly is an Agronomist with O’Shea Farms in County Kilkenny. As part of his Nuffield Scholarship, Thomas will investigate decision-making tools for the future of potato and vegetable production in Ireland. Thomas graduated from Waterford Institute of Technology with a Bachelors of Agricultural Science in 2016 and completed a Diploma in Leadership for the Agri-Food sector in 2021 from UCC. Thomas currently advises and manages Potato and Carrot growers on land selection, seed procurement, agronomy, and storage management. Thomas plans to travel to the USA, Canada, Northern Europe, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand.

Thomas’ Nuffield report is ‘The future of potato and vegetable production in Ireland: what next?’

Executive Summary:

Profitability and Sustainability for the potato and carrot sector in Ireland has never been more important. The way we farm and produce potatoes and carrots has changed over the past decade and will also be very different in the next decade and the future. The industry faces many challenges with primary producer decline, lack of independent research to drive the industry forward into the next generation of farming, below cost selling and competitive imports.

The standard of both quality and sustainability of potato and carrot production is ever rising. Growers must manage risk on daily bases from disease to weather and storage to markets. As a country we are lacking in fact-based research on how we can minimize risk from weeds, pests and weather-related events that have a big impact on these commercial crops. The sector has become very reliant on pesticides as they were cost effective and solved the issue. Food vision 2030 aims for Ireland to become a world leader in sustainable food system, this will be very difficult with lack of research, below cost production coupled with cheap imports.

This study looks at how the potato and carrot industry can be efficient, profitable, and ultimately sustainable going forward. It will look at three key areas of production, markets and consumption. Sustainable production will be focused on in depth however production is limited if we don’t have markets and consumption of these products.

Surprisingly with a country that is synonymous with potatoes and vegetables the amount of imported potato and vegetable products on Irish shelves is astonishing. Ireland imports some 80,000 tons of fresh potatoes per annum. Import substitution of these products is a low hanging fruit for the industry from both a risk mitigation to growers and sustainability for the industry with home grown produce. The largest imports are salad potatoes and chipping potatoes followed by Maris piper and general purpose whites. All these crops can be grown in Ireland with some growers doing an excellent job, the risk involved is far greater if the correct knowledge and advice is not on hand for the growers along with some risk sharing in the long supply chain. The dairy industry and dairy co-operatives in Ireland have become the benchmark for knowledge and data sharing between research, breeding, production, and markets. Primary producers view reports of their yearly production figures and compare them to the top 10% and the average primary producer to benchmark themselves.

Markets available to fresh produce are direct to consumers and along with wholesale to hospitality trade a split of 80% loose / 20% prepared. The direct-to-consumer markets tend to be washed product in 500gram to 10kg packs for potatoes and carrots with the hospitality now nearly being fully prepared product. Convenience is becoming more and more frequent with food products however the fresh produce market has been very slow to the races with new product development.

The objectives of the study led the author to travel to the USA, Canda, Netherlands, UK and Israel to study, meet and visit world leading sustainable primary producers, business and leaders in the fresh produce market.

The future of potato and vegetable production in Ireland: What next?

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David Fennelly from Emo in County Laois is a full-time dairy farmer in partnership with his parents. As part of his Nuffield Scholarship, David will explore alternative, swards, inputs, and grazing strategies, which can provide solutions at the root cause of challenges facing pasture-based dairy farms. David’s farm has a strong focus on reducing environmental impact and it is also a demonstration farm for the Signpost programme, which aims to showcase science-based technologies to reduce Irish agricultural emissions. David is a 2020 graduate of University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science in Dairy Business. As a member of a discussion group, David also has an active role in local Macra na Feirme and GAA clubs.

Nuffield Study report is ‘Alternative pasture management to address the nitrates challenge at the root cause’

Executive Summary:

For millennia, dairy production has grown in Ireland based on our climate and natural ability to grow pasture. Our pasture-based system exists within our unique symbiosis of climate, land and water. Irish dairy is recognised globally as safe, nutritious, and environmentally favourable, with €6.42bn of exports in 2023. In the past decade, the sector has far surpassed the target of a 50% increase in national milk production as set out by Food Harvest 2020. Our latest agri-food sector strategy, Food Vision 2030, emphasises the requirement to build food systems with a neutral or positive impact on environment. For the dairy sector – this is now the greatest challenge. Growing and utilising grass underpins the competitiveness, profitability and sustainability of Ireland’s dairy production system. The aim for water quality is to achieve good or high ecological status in all water bodies. The main issue which impacts the quality of our waters, and their biological health is increased concentrations of nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen. Agriculture and the natural nitrogen cycle are intrinsically linked, nitrogen being an important nutrient excreted by livestock and required for maximising grass production. Nitrogen in its nitrate state in soil, in excess quantities is at risk to be leached to water.

The aim of this study is to investigate grassland management practices which can deliver resilience in our farming systems, mitigating nitrogen loss to water while maintaining productivity of grass based dairy farms. The report sets out to look at the challenge from a root cause perspective.

Ultimately the soils under our management must carry out the function of filtering water while also carrying out the role of agricultural production. More extreme weather events, surplus nitrogen above the crop requirements in forms that can leach, and the movement of water through soil, are the basis of nitrogen loss to water from soils. In order to reduce the impact of grassland dairy production on water quality, it must be a key focus to reduce surplus nitrate above crop requirements and improve the water management capability of our soils.

Key findings of this study:

• Water movement, and soil nitrate concentration at the time of water movement, cause nitrate loss to water
• There is a strong correlation between nitrate leaching and farm nitrogen surplus. Farms with lower N surplus can be more profitable while having a lesser impact on nitrate leaching.
• Increased regulation alone will not minimise nitrate loss to water from dairy farms.
• Urine patches in a typical grazing system account for the 66% of the excretion of N from dairy farms and the most significant source of nitrate pressure on water – plantain in the grazing cow’s diet can reduce this significantly.

Key recommendations for stakeholders:

• A traffic light advisory system for nutrient application events. This should be a collaborative system engaging relevant stakeholders such as Met Eireann, Pasture base, and the EPA. This could be delivered via Dairy Co-operatives areas for increased accuracy and a means to offer advice to hard-to-reach farmers.
• Farmers should engage in continued professional development training in the area of soil management and the nitrogen cycle. Observational skills are required to assess and monitor soil function and a strong scientific knowledge is required to understand the N cycle.
• Nitrogen surplus as a new key performance indicator (KPI) – This KPI should be embraced by discussion groups. This is a positive setting whereby the top performers can help to improve the performance of the poorer performing farmers in this area.
• A heightened level of agronomy in pasture-based farming is necessary. This service could be provided to farmers by existing advisory bodies or private industry. This service has the capability to increase the efficiency of resources and data on farms and be a sound source of mentoring to help farmers in difficult growing seasons.
• The industry requires a more robust model of nutrient management planning at farm and regulatory level rather than whole farm stocking rate. This could capture more of the factors that are affecting nitrate leaching and reward the uptake of better practices.

Alternative pasture management to address the nitrates challenge at the root cause

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Margaret Edgill is an organic farmer, artisan food producer and grower in Daingean, Co. Offaly. Margaret is a graduate from UCD Michael Smurfit School of Business with an MBs specialising in Tourism. Since her return to the family farm in 2012 after a career in the Arts & Event Management sector spanning 13 years, she has been pioneering in her capacity to innovate. Margaret’s own farm diversification strategy has been centred on connecting food & farming harmoniously.

Margaret’s Nuffield Study is ‘Agriculture & tourism synergy: paving the way for farm diversification and rural prosperity’

Esecutive Summary:

Agri-food and tourism, which have traditionally been two of our strongest indigenous enterprise sectors, are built on the natural and human capital found in rural areas. This research was informed and guided by the relevant global, EU, national, regional and local policies.

There were 6.3 million international visitors to Ireland in 2023 with an estimated expenditure €7.3 billion (Central Statistics Office June 2024). Domestic tourism was valued at 2.93M (CSO 2022). Tourism is one of Ireland’s most important industries, contributing to the economic and social fabric of the island. It is a leading creator of jobs and revenue, and one of the few sectors that has the potential to significantly benefit remote rural areas. Tourism activity in Ireland is associated with over 4% of direct GVA (CS0 2022) while the agri-food sector in 2021 was 3.8% (CSO 2021).

The National Farm Survey Viability of Farms by System, 2021 found that 37% of cattle farms, both rearing and other, are vulnerable. These cattle farms tend to the smallest farms at around 34 ha each. Accordingly, there are over 24,500 vulnerable farms with 50% in the Eastern and Midland Region, 37% in the Northern & Western Region and 24% in the Southern Region. A farm is considered to be economically vulnerable if the farm business is not viable and if neither farmer nor spouse works off farm.

Historically one type of diversification is widely practised on Irish farms that of off-farm income. Accordingly, 34% of NFS farms are ‘sustainable’ due to off-farm income (NFS 2021).

Driven by global trends of concentration, low commodity prices and rising input costs, agricultural producers worldwide are looking at new opportunities to diversify and add revenue streams to their business. A popular and growing opportunity is agritourism.

Farm diversification is the process of a farm expanding its business activities beyond the traditional farming enterprise in order to add value to its produce, build resilience, increase business profitability, reduce market and price volatility, and highlight supply chain provenance.

What is Agritourism?
Agritourism is a type of experiential travel which connects people to product or produce, delivered on farming land through a direct ‘on farm’ experience.

The global agritourism market size was valued at USD57bn in 2023 and is projected to reach USD80bn by 2028 exhibiting a CAGR of 7%. Europe dominated the agritourism market with a market share of 47.07% in 2019. (The Business Research Company).

It became abundantly clear whilst undertaking extensive primary & secondary research that numerous international diversified farm enterprises had experienced policy supports which facilitated their growth.

This immediately raised a flag as to why our respective Department of Agriculture & Marine and Dept. of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media which had customarily presented strategic vision, ability and expertise. Moreover, our boundless ‘green reputation’ is the envy of our international counterparts why were we failing a just transition where “no farmer should be left behind” as we forge our way to a carbon neutral society.

The research subsequently focused on:

• Key enablers for farm diversification.
• Challenges and barriers to building synergy.
• Government initiatives propelling global agritourism market expansion and;
• Policy lessons from international agritourism models.

Agritourism will be a significant growth industry for Ireland’s rural economy and more especially pivotal in future proofing farm incomes, providing opportunities for multi-generational farm enterprises and succession planning.

In conclusion, it is a priority to develop a National Agritourism Strategy the success of which will be enabled by:

• Aligned, engaged and supportive stakeholders
• Funding support for financial and human resources
• The right policy and regulatory environment
• Access to quality insights,
• A focus on community, cultural, economic and environmental sustainability
• Positioning Ireland’s agritourism offering as an industry for the future
• Designed to raise confidence, build capacity and inspire action
• A partnership of Agriculture and Tourism that can build rural resilience & economic growth.

Agriculture & tourism synergy: paving the way for farm diversification and rural prosperity.

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Bryan Daniels, is a dairy farmer from outside Kilmoganny, County Kilkenny. A graduate of Kildalton Agricultural College, Bryan returned home to farm in 1999 where he converted the dairy and beef farm to a fully dairy enterprise. He has received several accolades in the last 20 years including Teagasc Student of the Year, 2001; FBD Young Farmer of the Year, 2007; and Teagasc Overall & Sustainable Farming Grassland Farmer of the Year, 2019.

Bryan’s Nuffield report is ‘Clover in Irish grassland agriculture’

Executive Summary:

Clover has just always seemed to have been part of grassland farming. It is a simple three leafed plant that is known for its ability to fix nitrogen, increase production in both yield from the land and in the livestock it is fed to. It is also seen as a way of possibly helping to reduce GHG emissions from agriculture. Despite Ireland being so well known for its pasture farming, clover use has fallen in and out of favour with Irish farmers over the last half century. Clover has been seen as being complex to manage and more associated with organic or extensive farming rather than productive profitable agriculture. In the last number of years, we have seen huge increases in the price of chemical fertilizers, issues in supplies and increasing pressure from the UN, EU and our own government to reduce GHG emissions from agriculture. To address these issues there is now a new wave of interest in clover as a possible solution to overcome these obstacles.

The aim of this study was to examine the reason why clover has had limited use in the past when research has shown the benefits on numerous occasions. The objectives were to find simple and workable solutions that would allow for greater incorporation of clovers across Irish grassland agriculture and examine the role of our farmer owed co-operatives in knowledge transfer of methods to reduce GHG emissions. The objectives were met by visits and meetings with farmers that have been using clover for a number of years and earlier adopters of more recent research to identify what was working for them. I visited advisors, research farms and co-operatives to understand the current situation and what future advice was being developed. These meetings and visits were throughout Ireland, The UK, Denmark, Germany, Singapore, Borneo, Brazil and Australia.

The main findings from my studies showed that there are many farmers using different levels of clover across their farms and are achieving respectable results when benchmarked against the top farmers in performance and profitably. These farmers have found simple workable ways around the concerns that restrict other farmers from adopting clover and low nitrogen systems. These included; changes to turn out dates, incorporation of other plants into the swards and changes in management. Bloat had been an issue on some farms, but I found that farmers that rear their young stock on clover swards reported lower incidences and in some cases no incidences at all. Weed control was not an issue that farmers were concerned about and felt they could control them without effecting clover on a farm level. On the research side there are mixed messages with the advice offered to farmers, this is obvious here in Ireland with the advice to nitrogen applications at establishment and through the growing season. The importance of the correct levels of soil fertility is still not being fully understood at ground level, in particular the value of soil pH. The availability of the right blends of fertilizers to maintain soil fertility needs to be addressed. Plant breeding can offer a solution to overcome a level of the restrictions that are limiting clover uptake, but it will take time to see a full role out of these at farm level. Our co-operatives on the milk processing side have implemented various sustainability programs that include environmentally friendly farming methods. These programs seem to be more for proving the sustainability of the milk for marketing.

From my studies and research, it is evident that there is a growing role for clover incorporation across all areas of grassland agriculture in Ireland.

• Where stocking rates are below a stocking rate of 2.2lu/Ha the use of chemical nitrogen has to be questioned when all other elements of soil fertility and farm management are in place.
• The use of small leafed clover, other legumes and plants should be considered to address issues of low spring growth, bloat prevention and protection of soil health.
• To maintain soil fertility, fertilizer companies need to look at different blends to best compliment the management of clover swards.
• Advisors need clear and precise advice for farmers that want to maximize clovers potential.
• Co-operatives have a good mechanism in the form of their sustainability programs for the marketing of milk, these programs could in time be used to increase the uptake of beneficial methods like clover usage to reduce farm produce GHG emissions.

Clover in Irish grassland agriculture

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