UGS conference to take place online again

Climate change and carbon are becoming an increasing focus for agriculture and the conference will highlight this impact and outline some of the work that is being carried out on farms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint.

Each conference session will feature presentations as follows:-

Tuesday 22nd February at 8.00pm - Dr. Steven Morrison, Head of Livestock Production Sciences at AFBI will give a brief background to carbon footprinting and an overview of some mitigations we can do now.

Alex Brewster, an upland beef and sheep farmer from Scotland farming 180 Aberdeen Angus breeding cows and a flock of 700 breeding ewes will outline how he has been improving soil health and sequestering carbon on his farm.

Thursday 24th February at 8:00pm - Prof. Gary Lanigan, Research Officer with Teagasc, Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford. He is involved in quantifying and drawing up mitigation strategies for gaseous emissions associated with agricultural practices.

Hugh Harbison runs a dairy farm of 180 cows on his 100-hectare farm near Coleraine. He is involved with ARCZero project, a partnership between industry, government and academia carrying out research to investigate practical ways to measure, manage and reduce carbon emissions.

The UGS Annual General Meeting will also take place at 7.30pm before the presentations on Tuesday 22nd February.

Following the presentations on Thursday 24th February the winners of the UGS Grassland Farmer of the Year Competition will be announced. This competition has again been generously sponsored by Danske Bank.

Rodney Brown, Head of AgriBusiness at Danske Bank said: “Danske Bank are delighted to sponsor the Ulster Grassland Farmer of the Year competition and would like to wish all of the entrants the best of luck in this prestigious competition.”

To join these UGS webinars it is necessary to register in advance by visiting the Society’s website www.ulstergrassland.co.uk or the Society’s social media channels or by contacting the Honorary Secretary at [email protected] or phone 07920037910.

The UGS Executive Committee have organised two excellent and topical presentations and are looking forward to good attendances from Society members and friends.