TResearch: Winter 2007

Editorial: Agriculture research: new challenges –new opportunities

The agriculture industry in Ireland appears to be at the start of a very dynamic period. Milk quotas, which have been in existence since 1984, are due in end in 2014. Set-aside has been reduced to a zero rate for 2008. New markets for biofuel and energy are emerging as serious users of croplands. EU farm support payments have largely been decoupled from production and farmers are much more exposed to world market prices and price volatility than before. Currently, milk and grain are enjoying the positive side of this volatility and, while prices can fall as well as rise, a consensus is emerging that food prices will trend at higher levels than in the recent past. In addition to these market-related issues, new issues like climate change have to be addressed. The challenge for agriculture research in Teagasc is to provide leadership to the agriculture industry and rural communities in these dynamic times by generating new knowledge and innovation to underpin competitiveness and sustainability. Knowledge and innovation are key to keeping an industry moving forward and, like other high tech sectors, agriculture must become more knowledge intensive to prosper. To increase the flow of knowledge and innovation to agriculture, we are developing centres of excellence in animal science, crop science, environmental science and economics and rural research. New state-of-the-art laboratories and facilities and an expanded research team will give our research programmes greater capacity and ability to tackle complex issues in a multidisciplinary manner. Our research programmes will embrace the latest techniques and technologies, while remaining strongly relevant to Irish agriculture by focusing on issues and approaches of relevance. In this way, we will be a central player in the next phase of development of the Irish agriculture industry.

Dr Seamus Crosse and Dr Frank O’Mara, Agriculture Research Directorate.

Table of Contents

• Feature
  • Newly appointed Teagasc Director, Professor Gerry Boyle, speaks to Catriona Boyle.
• Forestry
  • To thin or not to thin?
• News
  • Oak Park–UC Davis links
  • Science Week 2007
  • Economic outlook for the agri sector
• Food
  • Gut health in the elderly
  • The new nutraceuticals
• Livestock
  • Winter feeding of dairy cows: research issues and pasture-based systems
  • Beef suckler cow genotypes for grass-based systems
  • Farm factors affecting SCC and TBC
• Crops
  • The importance of diversity
• Environment
  • Lough Melvin: a participatory approach to protecting a unique habitat
  • Should we be glad we have fertile soils? A brief history of soil analysis in Ireland
• Economics
  • The subsidisation of Irish agriculture
• Events
  • Science events 2007/2008