The Carbon Challenge – Understanding carbon on your dairy farm

Thursday 29th February, 10:00am-3:30pm
Greenmount Campus, Antrim

Event is now fully booked.

The Carbon Challenge: Understanding Carbon on your Dairy Farm will be held at Greenmount Campus on Thursday 29th February 2024. This is the first event in a programme focused on assisting farmers to adapt their systems and adopt new technologies to contribute towards NI’s 2050 Net Zero target.

This conference will provide an overview of carbon, greenhouse gases (GHGs) and climate change as it relates to Northern Ireland dairy farmers. It will outline the regulations and policies that are to be implemented locally. Speakers from the supply chain and banking sectors will explain why carbon efficiency on your farm is important. The afternoon session will focus on the practical measures that can be implemented to reduce emissions.

Attendance at this conference will be the first step to planning a path to low carbon milk production on your farm.

Programme:

10:00 – Registration and morning coffee
10:30 – Introduction by chairperson, CAFRE
10:35 – Climate Change Regulation and Policy – Tracey Teague, Deputy Secretary of Climate Change, Science and Innovation Group, DAERA)
11:00 – A Retailer and Consumer Perspective of Carbon – Joe McDonald, Head of Corporate Affairs, ASDA NI
11:25 – Meeting the Carbon Challenge in the Supply Chain – Ian Stevenson, CEO Dairy Council NI
11:50 – Carbon and the Environment – A Banking View – Oliver McEntyre, National Agricultural Strategy Director, Barclays UK
12:15 – Panel Q&A
12:30 – Hot lunch
1:30 – Chairpersons Remarks – Mike Johnston, Chair, Carbon Farming Partnership’s Technical Working Group
1:40 – Feed and Carbon; Issues and solutions – Jim Uprichard, Trouw Sales and Technical Manager for Sustainability, NIGTA
2:05 – DAERA Policy – Reducing dairy emissions – Martin Mulholland, Carbon Reduction Policy Branch, DAERA
2:30 – Case study: Greenmount Dairy Herd, CAFRE Advisers
– Carbon Footprint
– Mitigation and Sequestration plans
– Adaptation and resilience
3:00 – Panel Q&A
3:20 – Summary and concluding remarks