AgNav for tillage will be launched at Crops and Technology. The information will strengthen the promotion of plant ingredients, underpinning product claims and enhancing their market appeal.

Over time, this should add value to native grains and reinforce the tillage sector’s reputation for environmentally responsible production.

To quantify, the GHG emissions associated with these products Irish food and beverages, the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology is widely used. LCA is the recognised methodology for determining GHG emissions per unit of product, commonly known as a carbon footprint.

Several LCAs have looked at the carbon footprint of tillage crops, but most rely on models that are not reflective of Irish farming conditions.

Teagasc, with thanks to financial assistance from Tirlán, has built a custom tillage LCA model of Irish grain production systems in 2024 according to international standards.

The boundary of the Teagasc tillage LCA extends from the extraction of raw materials through to the harvesting of crops.

Hence, it includes GHG emissions from on-farm and pre-farm activities (eg fertiliser manufacture). The model quantifies the carbon footprint by crop type using national research on agricultural emissions and carbon capture and retention or carbon storage or sequestration.

The Teagasc tillage LCA has been piloted on around 50 commercial farms, representing large Tirlán grain growers. The findings indicated the carbon footprints of Irish grains are among the best in the world. As part of the pilot, a surveyor visited each grower to collect farm information in excel surveys.

To scale up tillage LCAs in Ireland, grower information will be collected through AgNav, a digital sustainability platform co-developed by Teagasc, the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation and Bord Bia, with the support of the Department of Agriculture.

This online platform provides robust information to help farmers make decisions in relation to improving carbon footprint in an environmentally sustainable way. Recently, the Teagasc tillage LCA survey has been incorporated into AgNav and streamlined.

How to use AgNav?

The AgNav tillage survey is easy to complete, requiring an IGAS (Irish Grain Assurance Scheme) number and relatively basic information on soil type, crop types, cultivation methods, synthetic fertiliser types and rate, organic manures, field passes, crops yields, moisture content, cover crops and straw management. This information will flow into the Teagasc LCA model, which is currently being integrated with ICBF infrastructure. The model will be applied to work out the carbon footprint of crops grown on farms audited by IGAS.

What will you see at the AgNav stand?

At the open day, real time demonstrations will be in place for you to be able to calculate the C footprint of your farm there and then. The output of the AgNav tillage LCA will allow you to demonstrate that the carbon footprints of your crops are low by global standards.