Bord Bia reveals shortlist for Origin Green Farmer Awards

Bord Bia is delighted to introduce the Origin Green Farmer Awards, which recognise and reward the exceptional performance being achieved by members of its Sustainable Quality Assurance schemes for beef, horticulture and dairy. These schemes are pivotal to differentiating Irish food products in the global marketplace. Participating farms meet high standards around hygiene, farm safety, traceability, animal welfare, remedy use and commitment to their locality.

With the Origin Green programme, Ireland is the first country in the world to audit and carbon footprint its livestock farms, currently at a rate of 650 a week, under what is in effect a national programme and in the process provide measurement, feedback for continuous improvement to farmers. The results represent a unique selling point for Irish food exports, proving that farmers are operating with due care for the surrounding environment, resulting in a low *carbon footprint.

Speaking about the awards, Tara McCarthy, Chief Executive, Bord Bia said, “The farmers chosen as finalists for these awards are already regarded by the industry as being among the very best. Their commitment to sustainable production through the Origin Green programme and willingness to have their achievements judged by a panel of experts shows their ambition to be the best and to make the Irish food and drink industry a world leader."

She added: "These are the farmers Bord Bia will be looking to when we are demonstrating to food buyers the solid foundations on which the Irish food and drink industry has been built and why it is sustainable into the future.”, she added.

Judging Process

The beef and dairy finalists were visited over recent weeks by the judges, from Bord Bia,Teagasc and the Irish Farmers Journal who were impressed with the practices being adopted to raise efficiency and profitability. These include measures to improve animal performance, herd health and fertility, while controlling inputs such as concentrate feed and fertilizer.

New to the awards programme this year, judging for the horticulture sector was completed by experts from Teagasc, University College Dublin and I.T. Blanchardstown. The judges commended the positive attitude and clear understanding of the importance of farm sustainability demonstrated by the finalists Each finalist exhibited an inherent understanding of the importance and relevance of implementing strategies to promote safe working systems for staff, increase energy efficiency, and to protecting and enhancing biodiversity and the environment on their farms through the use of modern technologies allied with well-established good agricultural practices.

The 39 beef, horticulture and dairy finalists (listed below) represent the most efficient farmers in the country, producing what the market demands in a natural, sustainable manner. 

The overall category winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at The Heritage Hotel, Killenard, Co. Laois on Wednesday 12^th December.

Beef Finalists

On the beef-side of the competition, The 12 finalists have been selected from the 51,000 members who are certified members of Bord Bias Sustainable Beef & Lamb Assurance Schemes, based on their sustainability credentials. These farms are among the top performers surveyed with regard to carbon footprint, biodiversity and water quality. Each of these finalists is efficiently producing prime cattle suitable for our major markets. There are three entrants from each of the following production systems:

• Suckler to Beef
• Suckler to Weanling / Store
• Weanling / Store to Beef
• Dairy Calf to Beef

Dairy Finalists

Fifteen dairy finalists have also been selected from the 16,200 dairy farms which are members of the Bord Bia Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme. Similarly, based on the results of their sustainability surveys, these are among the leading farms nationally with regard to the efficient, sustainable production of high quality milk. The 15 dairy finalists represent different Co-ops which are themselves participating in the Origin Green programme.

* Carbon foot printing livestock farms is a measure of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of 1kg of output. Ireland has the lowest carbon footprint in Europe for dairy, while the carbon footprint of Irish beef has been shown to be the 5^th lowest in the EU.

Horticulture Finalists

Twelve producers were shortlisted under this category, based on their overall audit performance in the Sustainable Horticulture Assurance Scheme since it was launched in November 2017 under the following four categories:

• Mushrooms
• Field Vegetables
• Potatoes
• Fruits and Protected Crops

Each shortlisted finalist was visited by an independent judging panel and were assessed across 17 sustainability topics including crop husbandry, health and safety, farm labour, local community involvement, environmental/biodiversity measures and energy usage. These finalists are among the top performing horticultural farms in Ireland producing high quality fresh produce.