The awards event took place on Wednesday, September 25, and ABP Food Group took home the title in the Environment and Biodiversity category.

The basis for the award was the ABP Demo Farm based in Co. Carlow, which acts as a testbed and research farm for ways in which to improve on-farm sustainability.

The Sustainable Business Impact Awards aims to showcase best practice in sustainable development and social responsibility undertaken by Irish companies.

In 2015, the well-known Irish beef processing firm ABP joined a partnership with two beef farmers based in Co. Carlow to form what is known as the ABP Demonstration Farm.

The farm size is 280ac and it is laid out in two separate blocks. The farm operates a dairy calf-to-beef system where approximately 400 calves are purchased every year and are reared to finishing. Store lambs are also finished on the farm over the winter.

Although the farming system is dairy calf-to-beef, much of the research on the ABP Demo Farm is very translatable to suckler-beef production also.

The key theme on the farm is economic and environmental sustainability and in this, a large focus is placed on animal genetics and grassland management.

On the farm, heifers are finished at approximately 19-months-of-age and steers are finished at 21-months-of-age.

The farm’s system spearheads the processors' Advantage Beef Programme which offers guidance to beef farmers participating in the programme.

These farmer participants can avail of the processors 20c/kg Sustainability Bonus on all beef supplied from qualifying cattle.

In other awards news, ABP beef supplier John Murphy from Co. Cork was shortlisted as a finalist in the recent 2024 environmentally sustainable farmer of the year awards.

Murphy operates a dairy beef unit at Aghabullogue, Co. Cork and sources all his calves from local dairy farmers. He is using the Commercial Beef Value (CBV) when buying calves to verify the genetics of the calves he buys.

Steers are finished at 21-22 months and heifers at 19 months, achieved through good breeding, grassland management, herd health planning and producing high quality silage.