ABP Demo Farm reports 32% lower emissions while producing ‘heavier cattle'
ABP Food Group today hosted a special event on its Demonstration Farm in Co. Carlow to celebrate a decade of on-farm climate research.
Over the last 10 years, 5,500 cattle have gone through the demonstration farm. The latest research published today shows the farm's carbon footprint is lower than the average beef farm in Ireland, based on Bord Bia data.
The farm reported 32% lower emissions while producing 'more profitable cattle'.
ABP Demonstration Farm
The ABP Demo Farm was established in 2015, when ABP Food Group joined a partnership with two beef farmers based in Co. Carlow. The farm manager is Sean Maher.
The farm size is 280ac and it is laid out in two separate blocks. The farm operates a dairy calf-to-beef system where approximately 400 calves are purchased every year and are reared to finishing. The enterprise also runs a store lamb operation finishing 600-700 store lambs/year.
While the farm is operated independently, support in gathering data is provided by way of the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) and Teagasc.
Why was the farm established?
In the post-quota era of Irish dairy expansion, an increase in the supply of beef cattle from the dairy herd was forecast.
ABP Demonstration Farm
In 2014, there were 1.25 million dairy cows in Ireland and 416,000 dairy-beef calves were born in Ireland that year.
In 2024, there were 1.67 million dairy cows and 885,000 dairy-beef calves born in the country -showing the scale of the increase in dairy breeding in the overall Irish cattle herd.
At the time the farm was being established, there was no index available for selecting or breeding dairy-beef bulls, and beef-breed sires were selected predominantly for calving ease and gestation on Irish dairy farms.
ABP Demo Farm achievements
The ABP Demo Farm has compiled data on progeny performance from different beef sires used on dairy cows to identify the most suitable beef bull genetics for crossing on dairy herds.
The demo farm has also come a long way in understanding the impact of sire genetic merit on progeny with a focus on performance and environmental sustainability.
Through its collaborations with the Gene Ireland Dairy Beef Programme, the ABP Demo Farm has also managed to:
Support the progeny testing of new beef breeding bulls;
Gather data on key livestock performance traits;
Collect on-farm data such as live weight gain and methane emissions;
Collect and disseminate carcass data;
Collaborate with ICBF, Teagasc and leading AI companies to help improve the beef merit of calves bred from the dairy herd.
The farm is also working to identify what works 'at farm level' in relation to proactive animal health as well as good soil health, grassland management, biodiversity, and water quality.
In addition to this it is exploring ways to increase the level of high-protein feed that can be grown on farm to reduced the need for more-expensive soya-based imports.
While more work has still to be done, the ABP Demo Farm has played no small part in delivering genetic gain in pedigree AI beef bulls as well as improving the quality of beef cattle from the dairy herd while combining calf ease, short gestation and improved carcase merit.
All this work is being delivered with a central focus on improving the economical and environmental sustainability of these cattle.
A key part of the ABP Demo Farm is knowledge transfer and the farm is committed to sharing its learnings with ABP suppliers to be implemented across its family-farm supplier base.
Supported by the ABP Demo Farm, the Gene Ireland Dairy Beef Programme has distributed 279 test AI sires to date to 600 participating dairy farmers.
Sires to come through the Gene Ireland Dairy Beef Programme have went on to sire over 885,000 calves to date.
Over 1,400 of the progeny of these bulls have gone through the ICBF Progeny Test Centre at Tully, Co. Kildare.
In the Gene Ireland programme, over 150,000 AI straws have been distributed.
Economic and environmental value
Research from the ABP Demo Farm has shown that there is a €301/animal difference in carcass value between dairy-beef cattle sired by the top 25% of high beef index bulls and the bottom 25% of beef index bulls, based on current beef prices and using sires available in AI within breed.
For a calf-to-beef farmer finishing 50 cattle/year, this equates to €15,050/year.
Looking solely at the Commercial Beef Value (CBV), data from the ABP Demo Farm shows that the top third of Angus sires on CBV would leave a farmer €240 more money for the farm than the bottom 33% of Angus sires for CBV.
This figure is similar for Hereford sires at €220.
Water quality
The farm, which is in derogation, is conducting research to demonstrate that highly efficient and productive farming can work hand-in-hand with high water quality standards.
ABP Food Group has three trained water quality advisors on-hand to assist farmer suppliers in best practice in this area.
ABP's agri-sustainability manager, Stephen Connolly said: 'Irish beef has a carbon footprint which is half the global average and is among the most sustainable in the world.
'Working with the Science-Based Targets Initiative, ABP mapped out the emissions across its full supply chain and found that 90% of emissions occur at farm level.
'In response, ABP established the ABP Demo Farm to carry out research into more sustainable farming practices.'
Connolly said the Demo Farm acts as a testbed and monitoring station for ways in which these emissions can be reduced.
'There has been significant progress made which has been shared with the wider farming community, with the hope that they will be adopted on a larger scale,' he said.
'When the ABP Demo farm is compared to the national average carbon footprint for beef farms, the figure comes in at 32% lower.
'Our dairy-beef steers have an average slaughter age 180 days younger than the national average.
'Our research is implemented in the sector with our farmer-suppliers through the Advantage Beef Programme and we are continuing to invest in this sustainability initiative,' Connolly added.
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