ARCZero Carbon Farm Walk at Hugh Harbison's Farm

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 Thursday 1 September 2022 on the Harbison Farm near Coleraine.

ARCZero, led by Professor John Gilliland of Devenish, is comprised of seven innovative farmers from across Northern Ireland together with academic and industry partners. 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 Hugh Harbison, this will be the first in a series of farm walks which will be held in the coming months. Hugh, who will share his journey so far, runs a 180 cow dairy farm in partnership with his father Thompson at Aghadowey near Coleraine.

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, mitigation measures being adopted to lower the farm’s carbon footprint (including the use of clover and multi-species swards) and next steps in carbon and farming in Northern Ireland.

Speakers will include experts from Queen’s University, AFBI and CAFRE. Farm walks will leave at half hourly intervals from 10.30am to 12.30pm. Everyone is welcome but pre-registration is required.