The 2009 grass growing season started badly on farms, with poor weather conditions through late April and May resulting in disappointing grass growth. The wet conditions through the early part of the season made grassland management difficult with many farmers having to re-house animals or limit grazing. This resulted in longer grazing intervals and in some cases heavy grass covers. However, the recent excellent weather through late May and early June has allowed silage harvesting to progress and has seen most animals return to grazing.
Research is currently underway at the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute in Hillsborough to determine methods of reducing the ‘Carbon Footprint’ of agriculture. Agriculture is responsible for an estimated 23% of Northern Ireland’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and as such, the industry will need to play its part if the UK is to achieve the target of an 80% reduction in GHG emissions by the year 2050, set by government in the UK Climate Change Bill. AFBI research will contribute to the development of sustainable and carbon friendly farming systems and the generation of ‘Carbon Footprint’ data for the products of agriculture.
Potato blight is the greatest threat to successful production of potatoes in gardens or allotments as well as in commercial crops. Caused by the fungus-like organism Phytophthora infestans, it’s been a problem ever since its introduction in 1845 resulted in the Irish Potato Famine.
The answer to AFBI’s Fruit Cocktail Competition entered by almost 700 people at this years Balmoral Show was:
After a relatively slow start, grass growth has improved dramatically since mid-April, with the GrassCheck project indicating that growth will soon be at its peak in most areas of Northern Ireland. However, unsettled weather conditions through March and April have resulted in some herds being re-housed either by night, or day and night, while other herds have still not been turned out at all. The result is a surplus of grass on the grazing platform on these farms, with these surpluses likely to increase further given current and predicted growth rates.
