Grassland farmer competition opens

Deadline of September 6

The Sustainable Grassland Farmer of the Year competition for 2024 is open for entries. This is the eight year of the competition, and the organisers are looking for grassland farmers who are growing and utilising high levels of grass in a sustainable way.

The Sustainable Grassland Farmer of the Year competition is supported by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Teagasc, AIB, FBD, Grassland Agro and the Irish Farmers Journal and is run as part of the Grass10 campaign.

Launching the competition, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue said: “Grass is a valuable asset that gives our farmers a natural advantage over our international counterparts. Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of seeing the first Irish Grass Fed Beef with Protected Geographical Indication status being placed on supermarket shelves. This EU PGI quality scheme recognises the distinctive qualities and characteristics of Irish Grass Fed Beef and highlights its place of origin and our unique grass-based farming system.

“It’s important that we maximise the efficiencies of our grass-based systems to make them more profitable and environmentally sustainable. As part of my ongoing commitment to improving the sustainability of our farming systems, I reopened the Multi-Species Sward and Red Clover Silage measures again this year. This builds on the success of these programmes over the last two years.”

Head of the Teagasc Grass10 Programme, John Maher, said: “Grass is crucial to sustainable livestock systems both in terms of economic and environmental sustainability. The Grass10 campaign has shown how better grassland management and utilisation, has not only improved profitability on farms, but also helped to reduce greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions. More and more farmers are using protected urea fertiliser, recycling the nutrients in slurry through the use of Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) equipment, and incorporating white clover, red clover and multispecies swards to reduce their use of chemical nitrogen. Teagasc has increased research on nutrient management and the use of clover, and in advisory support to farmers to adopt these technologies.”

Categories

For 2024 the competition has a number of categories with an overall prize fund of €35,000.

Enterprise category awards:

- Dairy

- Drystock

Other category awards:

- Nutrient Management and Use Efficiency

- Clover

- Organic Farming

- Young Farmer (under 30 years)

The young farmer category can include entrants that are farm managers or farming in a collaborative arrangement.

Each category winner will receive €5,000. The overall winner will be selected from the category winners and will receive an additional €5,000.

The Sustainable Grassland Farmer of the Year competition aims to promote grassland excellence for all Irish livestock farmers. For farmers who wish to apply, please visit https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/grassland/grass10/grassland-farmer-of-the-year-/ .

Closing date for entries is Friday, September 6.