How AgNav is helping with sustainability

AgNav is a free, nationwide, online sustainability platform accessible to farmers and advisers, created through a partnership between Teagasc, Bord Bia, and ICBF.

The objective of AgNav is to encourage and support farmers to improve the sustainability of their farms by creating bespoke farm plans to help farmers implement technical and environmental improvement on their farms.

AgNav is also supported by Department of Agriculture and has great potential in helping the farming community contribute to the delivery of national targets.

How does AgNav work?

Through years of research, Teagasc has developed robust whole farm models that can conduct sustainability assessments of farming systems.

These models have been designed specifically for Irish farming systems.

The underlying methodology within AgNav is science-backed and independently certified ensuring reliability. To conduct a sustainability assessment for a farm these models need to be populated with farm data.

Through the AgNav collaboration, these Teagasc models have been incorporated into ICBF, allowing for the automatic population of animal and production data and Bord Bia Quality Assurance data.

From here, greenhouse gas emissions, carbon footprints, ammonia, carbon and nutrient balance can be automatically calculated for each individual farm without any additional time burden for farmers.

A key objective of AgNav is utilising the above to identify appropriate and impactful sustainable farming practices for each farm and creating a bespoke action plan.

To achieve this we follow the three As of AgNav:

AgNav is currently used in the Teagasc Signpost Advisory Programme and in some processor programmes.

Since AgNav’s launch in March 2023, over 10,000 farmers have signed up through the Teagasc Signpost Advisory Programme. The initial focus of AgNav was reducing greenhouse gas emissions, however, in August this year it expanded to include nutrient balances in response to industry demand.

It is not feasible to measure nutrient loss from each farm, and calculating the amount of nutrients lost from each farm requires a large amount of information.

Farm gate nutrient balances, an indicator for nutrient loss risk, has therefore become a valuable indicator in helping the agricultural sector reduce its pressure on water quality.

AgNav calculates nutrient balances for both nitrogen and phosphorus taking a farm-gate balance approach.

Utilising data already available, AgNav calculates the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus imported and exported in the system. The nutrient balance is the difference and is expressed on a per hectare basis as nutrient loss is driven by nutrient load per unit area. Taking this approach, AgNav can present the user with the key drivers contributing to nutrient balances and the potential impact of actions using the forecasting function.

The AgNav nutrient balance should not be used in isolation but alongside other resources such as a Nutrient Management Plan (NMP) and the EPA’s Pollution Impact Potential maps. This information can then assist the farmer and adviser in creating an informed Sustainability Action Plan.

AgNav is continuously evolving to enhance functionality and increase the diversity of farmers that can use AgNav.

Through a DAFM research project, AgNav will expand from focusing on dairy and beef to include other farming systems such as sheep, tillage, pigs, poultry and horticulture.

Teagasc researchers are actively working on expanding the scope of the sustainability assessment by creating methodologies for carbon sequestration and biodiversity.

Additional features are also being developed for AgNav’s forecasting function, including assessments of how concentrate feed, milk production and fertility, impact environmental indicators.

These advancements will further strengthen AgNav’s ability to support sustainable practices across the agricultural sector.

Farmers can access AgNav by signing up to the Teagasc Signpost Advisory Programme. This programme aims to empower and support farmers in implementing sustainable farming practices that are appropriate and impactful on their farms.

The Signpost Advisory Programme will achieve this by recruiting a team of 21 dedicated climate advisers whose focus is on using tools such as AgNav to create tailored Sustainability Action Plans to reduce emissions and minimise nutrient loss. Going forward the plan is to make AgNav available to all farms.

To sign-up for the Teagasc Signpost Advisory Programme and AgNav, please click here visit the Teagasc website.