ARCZero, a farmer-led European Innovation Project co-funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has announced it will hold a farm walk on Tuesday 21st June on the farm of John Egerton near Rosslea, County Fermanagh.

ARCZero, led by Professor John Gilliland of Devenish, is comprised of seven innovative farmers from across Northern Ireland together with academic and industry partners including Devenish, Queen’s University, AgriSearch and Birnie Consultancy. It has been investigating practical ways to measure, manage and reduce carbon in ruminant farming. ARCZero has just finished creating a robust baseline of both emissions and carbon stocks and is now looking at how these farms can further reduce their emissions while increasing their carbon stocks in a manner which will accelerate their journey towards Net Zero.

Hosted by John Egerton, this will be the third in a series of farm walks which are being held in the coming months. John, with his wife and sons, run a suckler enterprise on Lisnavoe Farm, where they have a herd 90 Simmental, Limousin and Saler cows on an autumn-spring calving system, with all progeny either finished through to beef or reared as replacement heifers. In addition to this, John also has a flock of 200 ewes and runs a Blade calf-rearing unit of 500 calves in partnership with ABP. John has been measuring grass growth on his 78-hectare farm in Fermanagh for several years as a management tool to maximise performance from grass. His skills have seen him receiving an award for the Ulster Grassland Farmer of the Year, 2018 as well as being the runner up in the British Grassland Farmer of the year competition.

At the farm walk delegates will be taken round a series of stops which will include an introduction to ARCZero and the farm, a look at how the greenhouse gas emissions were benchmarked, how above and below ground carbon is measured, the use of soil nutrient and LIDAR data to optimise the use of nutrients and improve water quality and mitigation measures being adopted to lower the farm’s carbon footprint.

Speakers will include experts from AFBI, Queen’s University and CAFRE. Farm walks will leave at regular intervals in the afternoon and evening. Everyone is welcome but pre-registration is required.