NI dairy sector gather at major conference to discuss sustainability and data

A recent Dairy Council Sustainable Dairy event promoted the need for Northern Ireland dairy farms to capture and analyse emissions data to inform on-farm decisions around sustainability.
By Joanne Knox
Published 9th Nov 2022, 12:33 BST
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The EU Sustainable Dairy Symposium is part of a multi-country European Milk Forum promotion programme to highlight the positive role of the dairy sector for climate action and the environment.

One of the event highlights was a discussion panel with the three CEOs of Northern Ireland’s largest dairy co-operatives Dale Farm, Glanbia Cheese and Lakeland Dairies, who underlined the importance of on farm sustainability to their own businesses.

Board Member of the Dutch Farmers Organization, Wilco Brouwer de Koning, provided a snapshot of the work being undertaken on his own dairy farm, and the work being undertaken in the Netherlands to improve biodiversity and DAERA Deputy Secretary of Food and Farming Norman Fulton provided a policy update.

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Three local dairy farmers took part in a panel discussion at the EU Sustainable Dairy Symposium, from an on farm perspective. Pictured from left to right: Hugh Harbison from Aghadowey, Ian McClelland from Loughbrickland, Dr Mike Johnston MBE PhD, Chief Executive Dairy Council NI, and Mark Blelock from Aldergrove.Three local dairy farmers took part in a panel discussion at the EU Sustainable Dairy Symposium, from an on farm perspective. Pictured from left to right: Hugh Harbison from Aghadowey, Ian McClelland from Loughbrickland, Dr Mike Johnston MBE PhD, Chief Executive Dairy Council NI, and Mark Blelock from Aldergrove.
Three local dairy farmers took part in a panel discussion at the EU Sustainable Dairy Symposium, from an on farm perspective. Pictured from left to right: Hugh Harbison from Aghadowey, Ian McClelland from Loughbrickland, Dr Mike Johnston MBE PhD, Chief Executive Dairy Council NI, and Mark Blelock from Aldergrove.

Dairy Council CEO, Dr Mike Johnston MBE said: “The Northern Ireland dairy sector has made significant strides in recent years to decarbonise farm and processing businesses, and this has put our produce on a sound footing for providing valuable dairy products for the local market and grow the sector to compete on the world stage.

“Many of the existing carbon reduction techniques, such as low emission slurry spreading, energy saving and renewable energy technologies, have become more commonplace on dairy farms and this has contributed to major savings over the last 32 years.”

He added: “The next stage in the dairy sustainability journey will be to capture the carbon emission data on a farm by farm basis to allow management decisions to be made tailored for their own farm.”

A number of dairy farmers have been participating in carbon modelling initiatives, such as the ARCzero carbon neutral acceleration programme, and local dairy farmers Hugh Harbison, Ian McClelland and former Dairy Council Chair Mark Blelock participated in a discussion panel with Wilco.

To view the existing sustainability information, visit the Dairy Council NI website www.dairycouncil.co.uk

Related topics:Northern Ireland