AgNav: Trusted Solutions for Everyday Farming

 Teagasc, Bord Bia and ICBF have partnered to develop an online portal of farm sustainability supports and solutions for Irish farmers, called AgNav.

AgNav has been created for Irish farmers, to support climate action and sustainability improvements on Irish farms. AgNav provides farmers with secure, accurate and verifiable data that allows them to choose the most appropriate actions tailored to their farm.

In Ireland, Teagasc is the largest agricultural advisory agency and Bord Bia (through Origin Green) and ICBF have the greatest involvement in farm data collection and analysis. AgNav utilises the three agencies’ collective knowledge to provide data, decision making support tools and guidance through one online platform. By pooling the resources of the three agencies through AgNav, we can provide one version of the truth to farmers. A further significant benefit to AgNav is that it will help to communicate the positive progress being achieved by Irish farmers.

 

Pilot stage

In March, AgNav was trialled with Signpost demonstration farmers and advisors through workshops to test the usability of the support tools. Further regional workshops will be held with Signpost farmers throughout the year. The functionality of AgNav will continue to be developed. Meanwhile, AgNav partners are regularly engaging with farming and industry stakeholders.

 

How to use AgNav

Farmers will be able to use AgNav on their own or with their advisor. To use AgNav, a farmer will navigate between three phases: assess; analyse; act.  

To begin, the farmer assesses their current farm performance in relation to greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions. AgNav displays total farm emissions, emissions per hectare and carbon footprint or emission per output (kilos of live weight gain or kilos of fat and protein corrected milk for dairy). The sustainability survey, completed by Bord Bia members, captures the farm activity data necessary to make these calculations.

The farmer can then analyse the impact of changes to farm practices using a Forecaster Tool. The Forecaster Tool analyses changes to fertiliser use, grazing periods and slurry management. In time, additional metrics will be added to the forecaster tool to give farmers a broader range of actions to consider, including age at slaughter, EBI and concentrates fed (see future timeline).

Finally, the farmer uses the Action Planner to create a sustainability action plan based upon the most appropriate actions for their farm. The plan will include actions, targets and timelines for implementation and completion.  

 

FAQs

Who can use AgNav?

AgNav will be optional and available to beef and dairy farmers initially. It will not be linked to the Quality Assurance farm audit and farmers are not required to be clients / members of Bord Bia, Teagasc or ICBF.   

Currently, the most developed data infrastructure exists for the dairy and beef sectors. Therefore, the initial focus of AgNav is beef and dairy only. Work is underway to develop similar data collection and analysis for other sectors. As they become available, they will be integrated into the AgNav platform.   

Will AgNav calculate carbon sequestered on my farm?

Currently, carbon sequestration is not included in the GHG models used in AgNav. However, as the scientific research into sequestration on Irish farms starts to deliver robust results, these will be incorporated into the models. In time it is hoped that AgNav will facilitate an ability to account for all carbon within each individual farms’ system. This will create a carbon inventory for the farm from which removals or additions can be identified and potentially link to any carbon trading system that may come into effect in Ireland in the future. 

Who has access to the data in AgNav?

Farmers control the data in AgNav that relates to their farm. Data will not be shared outside of AgNav, unless a farmer chooses to do so, for example with an advisor. Data used in AgNav to access, analyse and act, comes from information provided by farmers through their audit; from herd data held by ICBF; and information held by Teagasc on the Nutrient Management Plan (NMP) and PastureBase databases.  The control of data within AgNav is guided by the IFA charter on data sharing. Farmers retain the right to provide and withdraw access to their data.  All relevant GDPR legislation has been fully adhered to in the development AgNav.

 

Future Timeline

	Short term (3-4 months)	Medium term (12 months)	Long term (36 months)
Development		· Sheep GHG model · Tillage GHG model · Mapping – water	· Biodiversity assessment. · Pig, poultry, egg, and horticulture models.
Functionality	· Age at slaughter. ·  Concentrate feed. ·  Production.	· Animal inventory changes. · Economic impact.	· Carbon trading
Integration		· Pasturebase · NMP

 

Next Steps

 

AgNav is currently in a trial phase and available only to farmers through the free Teagasc Signpost Advisory. Visit Teagasc to sign-up.