The ABP Demo Farm is using a product produced by a Galway-based biotechnology company in a bid to reduce emissions while increasing the nutrient value of the slurry produced on the farm.
Glasport Bio’s Gasabate dosing system is a liquid additive for treating stored manures which the company says leads to “reduced emissions and enhanced nutrient values” in cattle slurry.
GlasPort Bio believes that if its Gasabate product is adopted nationally, it could reduce agricultural greenhouse gases by 9.4%resulting in a 3.5% reduction in national greenhouse gas emissions.
Commenting on the use of the Irish-made biotechnology on the ABP Demo Farm, ABP Food Group’s agri-sustainability manager Stephen Connolly said:
“The ABP Demo Farm is the first beef farm in Europe to install the system.
“It is estimated that the use of this product in the slurry has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) on the farm by 64t of Co2 equivalent.
“The ABP Demo farm is in the lowest 5% for GHG/kg of beef based on the ABP Beef Benchmark report. This is due to the lower age at finish achieved through good grassland management, nutrition, and animal husbandry on the farm.
“We decided to look at what new technology could we bring to the farm, that could help drive down our emissions further while also having the potential to scale to our wider supply chain.
“Research carried out by several research trials including Teagasc has shown the slurry treated with Glasabate had 80% lower methane emissions, a 50% reduction in ammonia emissions and up to a 20% increase in dry matter yield of grass when comparing treated vs. non-treated slurry.”
Connolly said that manure management makes up “approximately 10-11% of beef farm emissions” and added that “any product that can help here is a plus for beef farmers once we can get it included in our national inventories in Ireland and it is cost effective”.
How it works
Explaining how the product is administered to the slurry, Connolly said: “It is a very simple system, the product is delivered in an 1,000L IBC tank.
“Glasport Bio has a dosing system developed which feeds the additive into the [slurry] tank at regular intervals.
“The product is dosed based on the volume of slurry and is delivered into the tanks using several pipes fitted along the bottom of the feed barrier which then drop into the tanks at regular intervals.
“We have about five dosing points for the shed which is five bays long.”
The ABP agri-sustainability manager said: “We look forward to seeing the results over the coming months which we will share. We hope the results will give us a better understanding of the potential financial benefits and costs to the farm which we will share with our suppliers.”