Teagasc Research Programme 2002

(i) Dairy Products Research Centre

Cheese, Fermented and other Dairy Products: The objective is to enhance product differentiation through innovation in flavour, texture and functionality, improve process efficiency and explore opportunities for new varieties. Most of the research will concentrate on mozzarella cheese and on cheddar/cheddar variants. Specific objectives will include: developing new cheese cultures with improved cheesemaking properties; overcoming quality defects in low fat mozzarella; developing medium moisture cheese varieties with targeted flavour and textural properties; examining factors affecting cheddar cheesemaking efficiency and enhancing the flavour quality of cheese-flavour ingredients.

Food Ingredients: The objective is to develop technologies for extending the functional and nutritional attributes of ingredients (mainly milk based) and their use in formulated foods. Specific objectives include: studying the ingredient properties of milk proteinates; developing new whey protein technologies; establishing expertise in milkfat fractionation; enhancing heat stability of milk protein for infant formula; developing alternative technologies for improving the microbial quality of milk and milk powders; exploring new uses of milk powders in baked products and confectionery; and using fermentation technology to convert lactose into added value metabolites.

Food Safety: Research in food safety will concentrate on Mycobacterium paratuberculosis from the perspective of pasteurisation efficiency and survival in dairy products, on the risk posed by some emerging pathogens to dairy products and on antimicrobial factors produced by lactic cultures. A new EU Framework project will study the microflora of European smear-ripened cheeses from both a flavour and safety perspective. Food nutrition research will be aimed at the development of probiotic cultures for food and feed use and on the beneficial properties of the milk component CLA.

Several of these projects come within the ambit of the programme of biotechnological research that will be carried out in the new Moorepark Innovation Centre for Biotechnology. This programme will involve integrated production/processing research to create critical mass in the area. The Dairy Products Research Centre will continue to develop its programme of product and process innovation, central to which is a proactive involvement with food companies in technology transfer.

(ii) National Food Centre

Food Safety: This will continue to be the top priority, with a strong research, training and consultancy drive aimed at assisting food companies to implement appropriate food safety systems, in compliance with the new food safety regulation. Research will concentrate on developing systems to reduce contamination of foods by pathogenic bacteria and other organisms, and on quantifying the risks to consumer health from pathogens in foods. These systems will provide industry with mechanisms to prevent contamination and so reduce risk to the consumer. A substantial investment in industry training will provide for the development of nationally accredited courses, the opening of new training facilities linked to research, and training of in-company trainers.

Studies on chemical residues in food will prioritise the areas of mycotoxins, antibiotics and antiparasitics. Irish food products will be supported in the marketplace through the availability of timely, focused and high quality data and information on chemical food safety. A co-operation agreement with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland will be implemented covering the programme of research and training in food safety.

Meat Products: Meat research will support the production of beef of consistent quality and high nutritional value and processed products that meet consumer needs. Research will continue on the nutritional content of beef produced from grass-based systems with particular regard to increasing potentially health enhancing fatty acids. The application of biotechnology as a tool to identify the DNA sequence of individual genes or clusters of genes and their specific location for important quality traits in beef will commence. Innovative developments in meat processing and the development of on-line tests for quality will be pursued. Emphasis will be placed on technology transfer of innovative systems, processes and protocols to increase the competitiveness of the Irish meat industry.

Prepared Consumer Foods: Product innovation will be supported by the following three initiatives. Firstly, information on consumer trends and market segmentation will be generated by research into consumer food-related lifestyles. Secondly, technical research will evaluate novel processes and functional ingredients for the improvement of existing products and the development of new ones. The third initiative in consumer foods will be support for food product development projects in food companies by means of innovation training and consultancy in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland.

Dairy

Grassland: Systems of production will continue to focus on reducing overhead and direct costs by maximising the use of grazed grass as a feed resource. This entails understanding the reasons for the higher responses from supplementary concentrates and modelling grass matter intake against the sward and animal factors that influence intake. The studies on the evaluation of grass varieties will expand to investigate the possible interaction between grass variety and grazing pressure. Additionally, the link between residual free leaf lamina and residual sward height will be studied.

The longer-term goal is to develop an economic index for grass varieties to ensure that plant-breeding goals are aligned to the nutrient requirements of grazing animals. Low stocking rate/low nitrogen input systems will continue to be evaluated. The evaluation of the environmental implications of our production systems will become a more important component of the programme in future. Strategic use of nitrogen offers the possibilities to reduce the surplus labile pool of soil nitrogen without effects on grass growth. The studies on tiller dynamics in the sward will provide valuable data for modelling grass growth under grazing regimes. Mid-summer pasture digestibility, especially with early and intermediate heading varieties and lower nitrogen inputs, is still a constraint to high performance from pasture. Work in this area is continuing.

The emphasis on the regional dimension of milk production will be enhanced. This will focus on the development of strategies to enhance performance at pasture and reduce the environmental risk associated with grassland farming on high water table soils. Studies on labour efficiency will continue and the factors affecting human/technology interfaces will be strengthened.

Animal Breeding and Reproduction: With the objectiveof identifyingthe "best" cow type for the Irish production system, priority is being given to evaluating cross-bred dairy cattle as well as New Zealand, Holstein-Friesian and Norwegian Red cattle. The new dairy cattle breeding index will be further developed to include calving interval and re-appearance in the herd as indicators of fertility. A joint programme between Moorepark, Athenry and UCD will be initiated to study the effect of negative energy balance on high yielding cows in order to define nutritional and management strategies to overcome the current national problem of low fertility in high genetic merit Holstein-type dairy cows.

Animal Health and Welfare: In the area of animal health, the study on specific bacteriophages in the prevention and treatment of bovine mastitis will continue.

The programme in 2002 will focus on the further development of capability in biotechnology. The research in this area will focus on genetics, animal health, nutrition and reproductive physiology. Major objectives will be to begin identification of specific genetic markers for key milk production traits in dairy cows;

understand the basic physiological mechanism responsible for nutrient partitioning of nutrients to the mammary gland and maintenance of general body metabolism and energy balance in the transitional and early post -partum cow; study the key genes and proteins responsible for survival and continued development of embryos in high yielding cows in negative energy balance.

Beef

Grassland: Priority is being given to determining the optimum growing interval of autumn grass for winter grazing. In particular, attention will be given to assessing the impact of winter grazing on annual grass output, quantifying nutrient losses to the environment, and determining the nutritive value, optimum allowance and role of supplementary concentrates in winter grazing systems.

Animal Breeding and Reproduction: Work will continue on establishing the optimum content of continental breeding in the suckler cow so as to produce calves of high conformation and efficiency in the conversion of food to lean meat. With a view to increasing the use of AI in beef suckler cows, research will be undertaken on overcoming the problem of poor oestrous detection in beef suckler cows.

Animal Health and Welfare: The effect of outwintering beef cattle on drained wood mulch pads on animal performance, carcass fat content, welfare parameters and nutrient loss to the environment will be established. Work will also focus on developing objective scientific markers of stress in beef cattle. Research will be initiated to determine the effects of long haul transport to Europe and the combination of weaning and transport stress on suckler weanlings using the currently developed welfare assessment protocol at Grange.

Work will continue on EU-funded projects on ensiling sweet grasses and on the use of grass and/or clover to increase the concentration of beneficial (to human health) compounds in beef. Existing projects will also continue on beef systems, grassland management forage conservation, ruminant nutrition and farm buildings.

Sheep

Grassland: The following studies are being continued: development of an all-year round grazing system for mid-season lamb production including outdoor lambing; establishing the effect of various grazing strategies on sward quality in the summer period; and determining the impact of concentrate supplementation of lambs at pasture on drafting pattern and sward quality.

Animal Breeding and Reproduction: Research on the relationships between scrapie genotype and lamb growth and ewe reproduction will be undertaken in collaboration with UCD. Current studies on breed differences in resistance to gastrointestinal parasites will be continued and the programme on major genes controlling ovarian function will be expanded in collaboration with NUIG, AgResearch (New Zealand) and INRA (France). A new collaborative project is proposed in conjunction with UCD on using AI with frozen-thawed semen to define the basis for major ewe-breed differences in conception rate and to determine the basis for ram-to-ram variation in conception rate and how these differences may be assessed in vitro.

Animal Health and Welfare: Studies will be undertaken on the immunological responses of lambs to natural and artificial challenge by infective larvae in the context of known breed differences in resistance to parasites. The programme on parasitology will also involve on-farm studies on the seasonal patterns of faecal egg-output and their relationship to various management practices.

Hill Sheep: A new development in relation to the hill-sheep programme will be the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to establish the pattern of sheep grazing behaviour on the hill at Leenane in relation to vegetation type and the main physiographic elements.

Technology Transfer: The project on Technology Evaluation and Transfer, which was initiated in the 2000/2001 season, was disrupted by the Foot and Mouth crisis. During 2002 there will be a major emphasis on catching up with the planned programme and undertaking detailed investigations of lameness in the context of results to date.

Pigs

Animal Nutrition: Priority will continue to be given to improving production efficiency while ensuring that meat quality is of the highest standard. The programme will involve a number of collaborative studies with other Teagasc centres and with UCC and UCD. Developing nutritional and management strategies to reduce nitrogen excretion will address environmental concerns. The use of computerised wet feeding systems to deliver a phase feeding programme to finishing pigs will be examined.

Animal Health and Welfare: Current EU proposals envisage increased space allowances for growing pigs and a ban on individual penning of breeding sows. Research on sow-housing will focus on long-term effects of housing systems on sow welfare and longevity using behavioural and hormonal indices and the development of more objective welfare indices for pregnant sows. Research on controlling Salmonella will focus on the role of probiotics as alternatives to antibiotics.

Crops

Cereals: Theprogramme will give priority to developing a minimum tillage system which has significant benefits in terms of early sowing, reduced pesticide usage, biodiversity of soil fauna and improvement in soil productivity. Research will also address issues relating to optimisation of labour and machinery investment on tillage farms, improving decision-support systems aimed at reducing fungicide usage and assessing fungal pathogen resistance to strobilurin fungicides. Work will continue on the determination of field and store mycotoxins in cereals.

Potatoes: The programme will stress: crossing and selection to develop new potato varieties with increased emphasis on tuber diseases and resistance to eelworm; testing decision-support-systems for blight control; and assessing pathogen resistance development to blight fungicides.

Grass and clover breeding: Multiplication of a new variety of perennial ryegrass will be undertaken. The ongoing programmes on breeding perennial ryegrass and white clover will continue with increased emphasis on extended seasonal growth; a new programme on gene mapping of perennial ryegrass will commence in association with international institutes; marker-assisted selection for specific beneficial traits will be developed and incorporated in the breeding programmes.

Sugar beet: Research will focus on: sugar content and processing quality of new sugar beet varieties; further evaluation of novel seed dressings for the control of soil borne seedling pests; evaluation of seed and soil applied environmentally benign agrochemicals for the control of soil pests; continued investigations on the occurrence of the disease organism Rhizomania and its viral vector, polymyxa; biology and control of weed beet.

Protein crops: Work will focus on the winter hardiness of new varieties of field beans and their general suitability for autumn sowing; development of new methods for control of diseases in field beans; evaluation of winter peas for animal feed; and development of production systems for spring lupin.

Organic production: The key factors affecting the efficient growing of organic cereals will be examined with emphasis on enhancing yield and quality. Work will be initiated on organic production of root and vegetable crops.

Vegetables and Fruit: The work will focus mainly on the development of integrated crop management systems including the development of forecasting systems for effective control of pests and diseases.

Rural Environment

Nutrient Loss/Management: Laboratory studies will investigate the processes that determine nutrient loss from agricultural systems and how maximum nutrient efficiency can be achieved with mineral and organic fertiliser. In conjunction with these, field/plot scale trials will quantify the contribution of various sources, i.e. soil, grazed pastures, fertiliser, slurry, farmyards, seasonality etc. Modelling of nutrient losses and development of environmental risk information systems will receive increased attention with the aim of identifying the degree of vulnerability of specific geographic areas to nutrient losses.

Sustainable Farming Systems: Priority will be given to quantifying environmental responses at the Teagasc Production Research Centres with the objective of identifying systems and intensity practices of concern, the corrective action to improve environmental performance and their cost implications. An ongoing project on organic milk production will deliver valuable information on technical and economic performance. Work will also be carried out on the conservation, management and restoration of field margins with special reference to the Rural Environment Protection Scheme.

Gaseous Emissions: Increased emphasis will be placed on quantifying gaseous emissions from agriculture, and identifying appropriate abatement practices. In this regard, the establishment of a national farm waste and feeding regime database will provide an important basis for calculation of reliable greenhouse gas emissions at farm level.

Waste Management: Research will also be carried out on the establishment of guidelines for the recycling of sewage sludge in agriculture. The work will evaluate the significance of persistent organic pollutants, including endocrine disrupting compounds and disease organisms, in terms of establishing their potential for recycling in grassland.

Moorepark Technology Ltd. (MTL)

Moorepark Technology Ltd will continue to develop its business in accordance with the company's business plan as a provider of pilot plant rental services for product /process development and pre-commercial contract manufacture.