Welche Herausforderung/Problem wurde angesprochen??

With trends in biodiversity heading the wrong way and agriculture being one of the causing factors, a group of dairy farmers wanted to explore the options available to them to reverse this decline, with particular attention to insects. This had to fit in to the current farming practices without making systemic changes. The level of biodiversity in dungpads on the fields of dairy farms in Ireland was relatively unknow. Deshalb, we decided to do a baseline survey on a number of farms in the group spread across the county.

Dosing animals for stomach worms has been shown to damage insect populations and we surmised this to be especially true for populations interacting with dung pads. Therefore we also wanted to reduce the level of dosing on farm to promote insect populations while maintaining or improving animal health outcomes.

These challenges could not be solved by the group alone, additional expertise was needed to ensure a positive outcome.

Wie hast du das Problem gelöst?

Briefly the group:

Weighted calves at turn out to grass and weighted every calf every 6 weeks to ensure that they were reaching their target weight helping inform dosing strategy.

Took faecal samples every month for each group of calves and sent them to

Was ist in Ihrem Praxisfall innovativ?

Having done all this we came up with a dosing planner for our calves so that all members of the group could be confident that animal health wasn’t compromised while also promoting biodiversity.

We also launched a website making this dosing planner availa

Was sind die Erfolgsfaktoren bei der Lösung des Problems?

Built a framework for how to educate farmers on the importance of biodiversity and its relationship with animal health

Successfully developed a practical Dosing planner for young stock to improve health and biodiversity outcomes

Created the first baseline

Gewonnene Erkenntnisse

If starting a project like this again I would allow a longer lead in period to get expertise/administration etc. organised.

Welche Rolle spielt der Berater bzw. die Beratungsdienstleistung im Praxisfall??

Implemented the project. Facilitated the training days, managed the administration and oversight of the project.

Kann Ihr Ansatz auf andere Innovationsherausforderungen und -regionen übertragen und/oder angepasst werden??

Ja

Geschätzte Übertragbarkeit auf einer Skala von 1 zu 5

(wo 1 ist einfach und 5 sehr schwierig)

2

Für den Austausch der Erfahrungen mit der guten Praxis, Für alle Fragen und Anfragen zu den kommenden Excellence-Klassen

Lorcan Dooley

lorcan.dooley@teagasc.ie

Link zu externen Informationen

https://www.omooreinnovation.ie/