Quel a été le défi/problème abordé?

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. Par conséquent, 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.

Comment as-tu résolu le problème?

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

Ce qui est innovant dans votre cas pratique?

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

Quels sont les facteurs de succès pour résoudre le problème?

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

Leçons apprises

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

Quel rôle joue le conseiller ou le service de conseil dans le cas pratique?

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

Votre approche peut-elle être transférée et/ou adaptée à d'autres défis d'innovation et régions?

Oui

Transférabilité estimée sur une échelle de 1 pour 5

(où 1 est facile et 5 très difficile)

2

Le moment est critique pour mettre fin à la culture de couverture et la disponibilité de la sertisseuse à rouleaux peut représenter un goulot d'étranglement, Pour toutes questions et demandes de renseignements sur les prochaines classes d'excellence

Lorcan Dooley

lorcan.dooley@teagasc.ie

Lien vers des informations externes

https://www.omooreinnovation.ie/