What was the challenge/problem addressed?
Leitrim is a very rural part of Ireland with lots of small drystock farms who are elderly and /or working off farm. They traditionally farm sheep and beef cows at low stocking rates. The land is relatively poor in quality and suffers from high rainfall, so short grazing season and longer winters. As a consequence big areas of the farmland have been planted over the last 40 years with commercial forestry and this has impacted on the viability and sustainably of rural communities. Advisors and farmers have improved the quality and productivity of the remaining drystock farms but are keen to adopt new enterprises or systems that are more economically viable and fit better with elderly or part farm operators. One advisor (Tom Coll) has worked with these farmers and helped them to set up a contract rearing service group. This group is facilitated by the advisor who helps them to take in young calves form larger dairy farms and rear them to an agreed age where they are taken back to their farm of origin. There were many reservations a first by the farmers, but as a group the farmers worked with the advisor and others to ensure that the service was of high quality and offered a fair and valued option to both the dairy farmer and the contract rearing farm. The group works as a discussion group and promotes its service through the advisory service network. Contract rearing groups have been setup by other advisors in other regions and are supported by a wider pool of Teagasc research and specialist staff. https://www.teagasc.ie/publications/2020/contract-heifer-rearing.php
What are the success factors in solving the problem?
Interest of the farmers in changing
Trust in the advisor
Group peer to peer support
Support from the wider advisory and research community
What were the main challenges during the innovation process?
At this stage the demand for the service from dairy farms is not growing fast enough.
What role does the advisor or advisory service play with the practical case?
Knowledge awareness and exchange, Advisory, consultancy and backstopping aimed at solving complex problems, to be provided during the innovation process and based on demands of actors and the co-construction of solutions, Demand articulation, to allow actors to have access to new ideas, identify their needs, define their objectives and express clear demands to other actors, Networking facilitation and brokerage, to help organize or strengthen networks, improve the relationships between key actors and to align services in order to be able to complement each other, Capacity building, aimed at increasing innovation actors’ capacities in order to play their roles in the innovation process, Facilitating access to new networks and actors, Scaling up the innovation to increase the uptake by a broader group
For sharing experience of the practical case, please contact
Tom Coll
tom.coll@teagasc.ie