Upcoming events
- 18 March 2025: UK Dairy Carbon Network Briefing Webinar
Would you be interested in taking part in a UK wide innovative project to explore and implement management practices for improving on farm efficiency and reducing GHG?
- Improve efficiency
- Improve profitability
- Network with industry expert’s
- Implement solutions to reduce GHG
- Financial support
Join the UK Dairy Carbon Network Briefing Webinar for interested Farmers on Tuesday 18th March at 8pm for more information on the project.
REGISTRATION OPEN
- 3 April 2025: George Scott Robertson Memorial Lecture
AFBI, The Institute for Global Food Security, DAERA and the Ulster Farmers' Union are pleased to announce this year’s George Scott Robertson Memorial Lecture, supported by The Gibson Trust, will be delivered by Dr Nicola Ranger of Oxford University. Dr Ranger's lecture is entitled; Managing Nature Based Risks to the Global Economy and Financial System
Dr Ranger is the Director of the Global Finance and Economy Group at the ECI and of the Resilient Planet Finance Lab. She is also Executive Director of the Oxford Martin Systemic Resilience Initiative, co-Director of the UKRI Integrating Finance and Biodiversity Programme and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for New Economic Thinking of the Oxford Martin School.
TO REGISTER ATTENDANCE PLEASE CLICK HERE.
Completed Events
24-26 September 2024: 7th International COSMOS Workshop
From Research to Operations
AFBI Hillsborough
This workshop was for soil scientists and reviewed research applications of the cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) technology to enable the leap from research to operations, while addressing the key societal challenges and opportunities. View further event information below on the main COSMOS workshop website.
7th International COSMOS Workshop
Farming for the Future Open Days (18 & 19 June 2024)
The first day (18 June) was focused on Dairy with the second (19 June) looking at all aspects of Beef and Sheep enterprises.
Visitors were taken on guided tours with 8 stops on each day different areas of livestock production and management
Videos of all the main presentations are available on the AFBI YouTube Channel in a playlist for each day:
The latest AFBI research can help to drive further improvements in sustainability within dairy, beef and sheep farming systems. Learn how livestock farming systems can transform through improvements in efficiency, as well as the adoption of new ways of working and innovations to reduce emissions and maximise carbon capture within the landscape. Speakers included AFBI scientists and internationally renowned invited experts.
Related AFBI research articles:
- AFBI Open days – How to make the most of early life to improve your future dairy herd
- AFBI Open days - Improving the environmental sustainability of dairy farming through improved nutrition
- Soil Health Research to be Featured at AFBI Open Days in June
- Farming for the Future - Major Open Days at AFBI Hillsborough on 18-19 June
- AFBI Open days to include a showcase of Biomass Crops for Resilient and Climate-Proof Farming
- AFBI Open days - Improving the environmental sustainability of beef farming through improved nutrition
- AFBI Open Days – Tackling Ammonia Emissions from NI Livestock Farming
EurAgri Webinar Series 2024 (9 May 2024)
"Growing Value from Data Entrepreneurship on Rural NI Farms"
This Euragri-led Webinar Series highlighted and demonstrated the role of the entrepreneur in transforming SFS. The expertise and examples offered by the presenters provided participants with insights and knowledge-sharing opportunities on how they might grow and apply their entrepreneurial and innovation skills in their areas of activity along the SFS chain.
The audience were participants in the SFS supply chain, including students and those starting their careers, including farmers, processors/ feed compounders/animal health/ equipment providers, policymakers and consumers.
Scotland's Rural College, SRUC, Northern Ireland's Agri-Food and BioSciences Institute (AFBI) and Teagasc will host the series. AFBI hosted this third Webinar on the theme of Growing Value from Data Entrepreneurship on Rural Northern Irish Farms. In this third event we heard from researchers and entrepreneurs about the challenges they have overcome to build a viable business from farm data.
A recording of this webinar can be viewed below:
Webinar - Lough Neagh: Past, Present and Future (19 April 2024)
"What AFBI's long-term research programme tells us about changes in Lough Neagh in recent decades"
A recording of this webinar is avaliable on the AFBI YouTube Channel here
AFBI Schools Open Day (7 March 2024)
AFBI held a Schools Open Day on Thursday 7th March, 2024 at its Hillsborough site.
The aim of the Schools Open Day was to showcase how current AFBI research is addressing some of the major global challenges facing the agri-food sector at present. It was an opportunity for GSCE and A-level/ BTEC students studying Agriculture to bring their syllabus to life outside of the classroom.
Six schools from across Northern Ireland and 170 pupils attended. There was guided tours covering current and recent research in dairy, beef, sheep, pigs and poultry. Grassland management, crop production, renewable energy from biomass crops and the potential to produce energy on farms through anaerobic digestion of animal waste was also covered.
Full report on the AFBI School's Day
George Scott Robertson Memorial Lecture 2024 (27 Feb 2024)
Riddel Hall, QUB.
The lecture was delivered by Dr Pete Falloon, Lead at the Met Office's Climate Service for Defra on Food, Farming and Natural Environment.