annual report 2008

Teagasc,Oak Park, Carlow, Co. Carlow

Tel: 059 917 0200 Fax: 059 918 2097 Email: [email protected] www.teagasc.ie

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Contents2008

INTRODUCTION

The 2008 Annual Report is built around the goals outlined in theTeagasc Statement of Strategy 2008-2010. Key achievements anddevelopments for the Agriculture Research, Food Research,Training and Development, Advisory, Corporate and ManagementServices, and Administration Directorates are described in thecontext of these goals.

2 Highlights of 2008- Foresight- Growing Knowledge- Farmfest

8 Chairman’s Statement

10 Report of the Director

12 Authority Members

13 Authority Committee Members

14 Senior Management

15 Office Locations

16 Organisational Chart

18 Goal 1 - Improve the competitiveness of agriculture, food and the wider bioeconomy

46 Goal 2 - Support sustainable farmingand the environment

56 Goal 3 - Encourage diversification of the rural economy and enhance the quality of life in rural areas

60 Goal 4 - Enhance organisational capabilityand deliver value for money

67 Financial Statements

78 Notes to the Financial Statements

The Teagasc 2030 Foresight projectwas launched in December 2006and concluded with the launch of the project report at aninternational conference in DublinCastle on 30 May 2008.

The project aimed to establisha broadly-shared vision for theIrish agri-food and rural economyin 2030, identify its knowledgerequirements and strengthen the strategic capabilities ofTeagasc and its relevance to itsstakeholders, thereby enabling itto provide proactive leadership ina rapidly changing open-marketenvironment. Teagasc 2030 was undertaken in collaborationwith the key agrifood and rural stakeholders. The project was overseen by a SteeringCommittee, chaired by ProfessorSeamus Smyth, PresidentEmeritus, NUI Maynooth,and comprised national andinternational representatives fromgovernment institutions, industryand universities. The SteeringCommittee was assisted by abroadly representative ForesightPanel, which was responsible for information gathering andanalysis, scenario building,strategy development andreporting.

A Foresight Working Group,drawn from the research,advisory and trainingdirectorates, was responsible forday-to-day running of the project.The work of the project was builtaround seven major workshopsand a number of other specialinformation gathering events,including an international ‘Out-of-the-Box Thinking’ workshop heldin the RDS Dublin in July 2007.Drawing on likely developmentsin the agri-food sector and ruraleconomy and globaldevelopments over the next 20years or so, Teagasc 2030developed alternative scenarios,outlined different possible‘futures’, and how they couldimpact on Teagasc.

These were designed to stimulatethinking on the ability of theorganisation to prepare fordifferent eventualities or ‘futures’as they emerge. These scenariosformed the basis for thedevelopment of a long-termorganisational strategy forresearch and knowledgemanagement.

The project was undertakenagainst a rapidly changingmarket, policy and scientificenvironment for the agri-foodsector. Associated concernsabout food and energy security,climate change andenvironmental sustainability arenow to the forefront of globalconcerns.

At the same time, rapid advancesin the biosciences are alreadyhelping to meet these urgentglobal challenges and, in theprocess, are creating a multitudeof new business opportunities foragriculture and the broadernatural resource sector. Thereport concluded that respondingto these fundamentalopportunities and concerns willprovide a new and central focusfor agriculture globally over thecoming decades.

The report stated that Ireland,too, can benefit from these newopportunities and our naturalresource sector could play acentral role in the country’seconomic development in thepost-Celtic-Tiger era. Thepotential for new businessdevelopment is so great that it isnecessary to re-configure thetraditional scope of the sector toencompass its greater potential.The focus of this report is,therefore, on the broader conceptof the bioeconomy. Teagasc’s roleinto the future will be to supportthe Irish bioeconomy in playing acentral role in the ‘knowledgeeconomy’ through supportinginnovation by farms and firms.

A key outcome of theForesight project was theestablishment of a Foresight Unitheaded by Dr. Lance O’Brien. Theprimary role of the unit is to leadin the implementation of thereport’s recommendations.

TEAGASC 2030 FORESIGHT PROJECT

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Highlights 2008

Mr. Mike Feeney, ExecutiveDirector, InternationallyTraded Business Sectors,Enterprise Ireland;Ms. Olivia O’Leary,Broadcaster and Journalist;Mr. Jackie Cahill, President,ICMSA; Dr. Hugh Brady,President, Irish UniversitiesAssociation Council;Mr. Padraig Walshe, President,IFA; Ms. Catherine Buckley,President, Macra na Feirme;Mr. John Moloney, GroupManaging Director, Glanbiaplc; Prof. Gerry Boyle,Director of Teagasc and Dr. Lance O’Brien, ForesightProject Manager.

Dr. Gale Buchanan, Under Secretaryfor Research, Education andEconomics, USDA.

Prof. Gerry Boyle, Director of Teagasc;Dr. Gale Buchanan, Under Secretary for Research,Education and Economics, USDA; Dr. Tom O’Dwyer,then Teagasc Chairman and Mr. Brendan Smith,T.D., Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Dr. Tom O’Dwyer, Mr. Brendan Smith,T.D., Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries

and Food and Prof. Gerry Boyle,Director of Teagasc.

GROWING KNOWLEDGE Fifty Years of Research and Development in Irish Farming and Food

The 1950s was a dismal period for theIrish economy. The population was at itslowest since the famine and agriculture,the dominant industry, was grosslyunder-developed. 1958 marked a newbeginning. The First Programme forEconomic Expansion encouragedforeign investment and promotedexports.

It portrays the vision of pioneers,notably Dr. Tom Walsh, in building aninternationally-renowned research bodyand their role in transforming the Irishagriculture and food industry during thelast half-century. The vibrancy of the earlydecades, the financial traumas and policychanges of the 1980s and 1990s to theexciting opportunities for farming andfood in this century are all vividlycaptured.

Anyone with an interest in the dramaticchanges in farming, food and rural Irelandand the people who helped to shapethem, will find this book essential reading.

And a new agricultural research institute- An Foras Talúntais - was established.

This book charts the events, the politicsand the personalities behind theformation of An Foras Talúntais andhighlights the central part played by USfunding under the Marshall Plan.

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Highlights 2008Prof. Gerry Boyle, Director of Teagasc;Dr. Tom O’Dwyer, then Teagasc Chairman;Mr. Brendan Smith, T.D., Minister for Agriculture,Fisheries and Food and Michael Miley, Editor,Growing Knowledge at the launch of the Teagasc ‘Growing Knowledge’ book which marked 50 years of research and development in Irish farming and food.

Tilly O’Donnell, Teagasc Kildaltonand Eileen Lehane, Teagasc

Moorepark pictured at the launchof the Teagasc ‘Growing

Knowledge’ book

Mark Moore, Teagasc,Oak Park; James J Brett,Teagasc Authority Memberand Michael Miley, Editor,Growing Knowledge

Michael Diskin, Teagasc Athenryand Judy Chambers, Teagasc, OakPark at the launch of the Teagasc‘Growing Knowledge’ book

Far Left:Paddy O’Keeffe,Chairman, FBD Trust and Pat Markey,former Director ofAdministration in ACOT and former Head of Personnel in An Foras Talúntais.

Left:Dr. Tom O’Dwyer,then Teagasc Chairman;

FARMFEST

2008Building sustainable farming andrural businesses was the maintheme running through Farmfest '08,the major Teagasc outdoor eventof the year.

Speaking at the official openingof Farmfest and Bioenergy ‘08 inAthenry, on Friday, 20 June, ProfessorGerry Boyle said: "Teagasc is allabout the long-term sustainabledevelopment of agriculture, thefood industry and rural-basedbusiness. While other industrieshave gone through a recent boom,farming and rural business havebeen developing on a steady,even keel over the past ten yearsduring the Celtic Tiger.

Now as some other sectors of the economy are slowing thesustainable development that hasbeen taking place on farms andin innovative indigenous food andrural-based businesses is comingto the fore."

Professor Boyle said: "The fruitsof all that hard work are everywhereto be seen here in Athenry today,in terms of sustainable businessesfor the future. In the core farmingenterprises, Teagasc researchshows how dairy farming has acompetitive advantage relative to other European and globalmilk producers on a cash costbasis and so will provide a viablefuture for many dairy farmers.

Despite the contraction in thesheep industry, some of the finestanimals in the country are onshow and competing for thecoveted rosettes in their variouschampionships.

"The hundreds of artisan foodand speciality food producersdisplaying their unique range ofproducts are a brilliant example

of how innovative ruralbusinesses can carve

out niche markets,and develop in asustainable way tosurvive and prosperin the years ahead.

The speciality food market is nowone of the fastest growing, worth€500 million annually in Ireland witha large European market worth€33 billion on our doorsteps."

Professor Boyle continued:"The Bioenergy '08 event inAthenry is highlighting ways offinding sustainable solutions tomeet the growing energy needsof the country. Teagasc iscommitted to finding land-basedenergy solutions especially fordomestic and consumer heating.Forestry, with its stock of ready to thin forests, will provide thematerial to meet the first wave of demand for biomass, whilealternative energy crops such as willow and miscanthus arebecoming more established.

The big challenge for ourresearchers is to find sustainableplant-based alternatives, the socalled second and third generationbiofuels, which will provide long-term sustainable alternatives topetroleum based products," he said.

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Highlights 2008

Gerry Scully, Teagasc Athenry with Mr. Brendan Smith, T.D., Minister for

Agriculture, Fisheries and Food at Farmfest 08which was held in Athenry on 20 June 2008.

Teagasc researcher Anne Bailey with Dimitra Khalil

Ruth Hamill and Mohammad Hossain,Teagasc, Ashtown.

The Minister for Agriculture,Fisheries and Food, Brendan SmithT.D., appointed three new membersto the Teagasc Authority.

Four authority memberscompleted their terms. Dr. TomO’Dwyer retired on 14thSeptember having completed twofive-year terms as Chairman of theAuthority. He made a lastingcontribution to the organisationover that period. As Chair of theAuthority he led the organisation informulating and implementing theTeagasc Vision Programme, whichidentified areas of science in whichTeagasc should excel, and thefacilities needed to conduct therequired research.

The late Michael O’Dwyer fromTipperary had just retired inSeptember after 20 years on theTeagasc Authority, before his sadand untimely passing in December.His wise counsel, practicalapproach, and friendly, yetbusiness-like manner, were greatlyappreciated, while his commitmentof over 20 years to the TeagascAuthority was a reflection of hissupport for the organisation’s workon behalf of farmers.

Patrick Kelly from Killygordon,Co. Donegal, and Jerry Henchy,Kilmallock, Co Limerick steppeddown on completing their five-yearterms and the Authority and staffalso acknowledges theircontribution to the organisation.Padraig Gibbons from Bullaun,Co. Mayo, a dairy farmer, andChairman of Connacht Gold co-opwas appointed to represent ICOSon the Authority. Frank O’Mahony, adairy farmer from Ballyorban,Monkstown, Co. Cork, wasappointed having been nominatedby Macra Na Feirme.

A strong working relationshipexists between Teagasc, theMinister and his Department led bythe Secretary General Tom Moran.On behalf of the Authority I thankthe Director, Professor Gerry Boyleand staff for their professional anddedicated contribution to Teagascand to the farming, and foodsectors. It is a challenging time butone that Teagasc will face withvigour and enthusiasm.

Dr. Noel CawleyChairman of the Teagasc Authority

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A process to prioritise programmeareas and activities across thebusiness units in Teagasc wasundertaken to ensure that scarcerfinancial resources are utilised mosteffectively to support the Irishagriculture and food industry.A comprehensive ChangeProgramme for Teagasc wasdrafted in the year under review,agreed in early 2009 and iscurrently being implemented. Theorganisation will be positioned tosupport the sector in a more costeffective way, pursuing relevantresearch, finding new ways totransfer technologies to the farmingand food industry and providingeducational courses to meet theneeds of the next generation.

The Teagasc budgeted grant-in-aid at the beginning of 2008 was€145.114 million. The outturn at theend of the calendar year was€139.964 million. At the time ofwriting, the budgeted grant-in-aidfor 2009 is €131.927 million. Thesedownward adjustments to theTeagasc budget made in 2008 andin 2009 reduced the fundingavailable by €13 million.

Faced with this level of reduction inits state budget, the Authority wasmindful of the need to ensure themaximum efficiency andeffectiveness of all its operations.The Authority conducted a reviewof the effectiveness of the systemsof internal financial control in 2008and implemented appropriateactions. The Audit Committee ofthe Teagasc Authority requestedthe Internal Auditor to carry out areview of expenses incurred bystaff. In the course of the audit itwas noted that certain expenditureincurred by staff was not whollybusiness related. The gross outlayinvolved was of the order of€80,000. However, because of themixed objectives of the spend,some of which related to staffdevelopment, it was not possible toprecisely quantify the non-effectiveelement.

Appropriate policies onentertainment and foreign travelhave now been devised andcommunicated to staff, improvedguidance on the application ofbudgets has been put in place andstaff have been reminded of theacceptable use of public funds inrelation to entertainment typeexpenditure.

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Irish agriculture faces a period of change and challenge during the next five years.

Adapting individually and collectively will determine the success of the sector during

the period ahead. The agri-food processing industry must strive to maintain and

improve its competitiveness, while at farm level producers face a challenge to protect

their businesses from the impact of greater price volatility in the future. All available

technologies should be tailored to suit the requirements of each individual set of

circumstances. To support this, Teagasc has prioritised the transfer of technology and

knowledge to farms and to small and medium sized food businesses.

CHAIRMAN’SSTATEMENT

To aid in the transfer of technologyto small and medium sized foodcompanies, a new service is beingprovided by Teagasc. SME’s arekey drivers of the Irish economy,providing sustainable employmentfor significant numbers of people,and this new service will assistthem to identify research basedtechnologies capable of enhancingthe competitiveness of individualbusinesses.

Teagasc advisers assisted 6,400farmers by preparing REPS plansfor submission, while 14,400applicants for the Farm WasteManagement Scheme wereassisted with the final paperworknecessary to secure grant aid.Three thousand nine hundredclients attended Teagasc organised20-hour REPS courses. In the latterpart of 2008 the advisory serviceprovided training to large numbersof farmers who participated in theSuckler Cow Welfare Scheme.

A more targeted scientificapproach to animal breeding is nowpossible having been developed byresearchers at the Moorepark DairyProduction Research Centre incollaboration with industry and theICBF, and the potential benefits ofgenomic selection are estimated at€8 million to the Irish dairy sector.The potential for application acrossthe livestock enterprises is exciting.

In 2008 Teagasc celebrated fiftyyears since the establishment of AnForus Talúntais or the AgriculturalInstitute as it was also known. Aseries of events were held duringthe year to acknowledge thescientific achievements and theircontribution to the development ofthe agriculture industry over thefifty years. Some of these researchhighlights are captured in a book,Growing Knowledge, published lastyear.

Farmfest, the main Teagasc outdooropen day of the year took place inAthenry in June. It was a majorsuccess, showcasing the latestapplied research, providing thebest enterprise specific advice andoutlining the educational options foryoung farmers and adult trainingcourses. Bioenergy ’08, the annualbioenergy event organised jointlyby Teagasc, COFORD and SEI, tookplace as part of Farmfest andhelped to attract an attendance ofover 30,000 people.

An international biotechnologyconference, organised jointly byTeagasc and University CollegeCork, brought together leadingscientists working in thebiosciences in different sectors, toIreland last summer for a four dayevent.

Teagasc’s research capacitywas enhanced through therecruitment of leading seniorscientific investigators to deliver thevision programme for theorganisation. These includedscientists for the animal biosciencecentre, the crops bioscience centre,and for the food researchprogramme.

Significant investment in capitalprojects included new researchfacilities at the Moorepark FoodResearch Centre; educationalfacilities at the Kildalton College;extension to head office in OakPark, Carlow; new laboratories atthe Ashtown Food Research centre;and renovations to existing officesat the Mellows Centre, Athenry.

A major re-organisation ofdirectorates commenced in late2008 that will see the establishmentof a single directorate for researchand a new directorate forknowledge transfer and education.Further changes in administrationstructures also were implemented,including a change, whereby theInternal Auditor now reports to theDirector in order to improve theefficiency of the internal financialcontrol process and to streamlinereporting arrangements.

Professor Gerry BoyleDirector

The environment continues to beimportant for the agricultural sectorand Teagasc continues to commitresources to this sector though theenvironmental research centre inJohnstown Castle and by theenvironmental specialists workingin the advisory service. Animportant conference took place inWexford on climate change and therole of agriculture, with researchwork from New Zealand alsofeaturing. In the autumn aninternational conference on waterquality took place, withcontributions from experts aroundthe world. Both conferenceshighlighted the importance ofharvesting knowledge frominternational sources tocomplement research work beingundertaken in Ireland.

An ‘agricultural catchments’programme, to provide intensiveon-farm environmental advice toassist land owners maintain andimprove water quality in a numberof selected river catchments wasset up and will run for five years.This research will provide science-based factual data on the influenceof farming on water quality.

The Technology, Evaluation andTransfer farms (TETs) already setup for the sheep sector, have beenrebranded as BETTER farms andthe model extended to otherenterprises. A Better Farm beefprogramme, involving fifteencommercial suckler beef farmers,has been established with supportfrom the Irish Farmers Journal andindustry.

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REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR

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An extensive foresight exercise was concluded last year which identified some of the

anticipated key drivers of change in the agriculture and food industry over the longer

term. The Teagasc 2030 report was published and presented at a major international

conference in Dublin Castle in May. The report provided a top-level strategic direction

for both the industry and for Teagasc. It identified key technology platforms for the

future. The report has fed into the Teagasc Statement of Strategy for 2008-2010,

published last year. It has also informed decisions taken in forming the Teagasc

Change Programme which was drafted in 2008 and finalised and agreed since the year

end. It prioritises the programme areas which Teagasc will pursue and the necessary

reorganisation of resources that will be required given the severely restricted public

budget.

Remuneration CommitteeDr. Noel Cawley (Chairman)Mr. Martin HeraghtyMr. Padraig GibbonsMs. Margaret Sweeney

Advisory and EducationCommitteeMr. Frank O’Mahony (Chairman)Mr. Derek DeaneMr. Stephen FlynnMr. Joe FitzgeraldMr. Padraig Gibbons

Research CommitteeProf. Patrick Fottrell (Chairman)Mr. Derek DeaneMr. Frank O’MahonyMr. Stephen Flynn

Audit CommitteeMr. James Brett (Chairman)Ms. Margaret SweeneyDr. Noel CawleyMr. Martin Heraghty

Finance & HR CommitteeMr. Martin Heraghty (Chairman)Dr. Noel CawleyMr. Stephen FlynnMr. James BrettMr. Joe Fitzgerald

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THE AUTHORITY

MR. DEREK DEANEIFA Nominee

DR. NOEL CAWLEYChairman Appointed on the 17September 2008 for a term of five years.

MR. MARTIN HERAGHTYMinister’s Appointee

MR. PADRAIG GIBBONSICOS Appointed on the 15 September 2008 for a term of five years.

MR. FRANK O’MAHONYMacra Na Feirme Appointed on the 15 September 2008 for a term of five years.

MS. MARGARET SWEENEYMinister’s Appointee

MR. JAMES J. BRETTMinister’s Appointee

MR. JOE FITZGERALDICMSA Nominee

MR. STEPHEN FLYNNStaff Representative

PROF. PATRICK FOTTRELLMinister’s Appointee

MR. JERRY HENCHYMinister’s Appointee Term of office ended on the 11 November 2008.

DR. TOM O’DWYERChairman Term of office ended on the 14 September 2008.

MR. MICHAEL O’DWYERRIPICOSTerm of office ended on the 14 September 2008.Mr. O’Dwyer died on the 16 December 2008.

MR. PATRICK J. KELLYMacra Na Feirme Term of office ended on the 14 September 2008.

TEAGASC AUTHORITYCOMMITTEES

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TEAGASC SENIORMANAGEMENT*

PROF. GERRY BOYLEDirector

MR. PAT BOYLEHead of AdvisoryServices Directorate

MR. DONAL CAREYHead of Education andDevelopment Directorate

DR. SEAMUS CROSSEHead of AgricultureResearch Directorate

PROF. LIAM DONNELLYHead of Food ResearchDirectorate

MR. TOM KIRLEYHead of AdministrationDirectorate

MR. TOM COLLINSHead of Corporate andManagement ServicesDirectorate

TEAGASC OFFICES AND CENTRES

TEAGASC LOCATIONS

MAP CORRECT AS OF JANUARY 2009AREA UNITS BASED ON COUNTYBOUNDARIES EXCEPT WHERE INDICATED.* STATUS JANUARY 2009

TEAGASC ORGANISATIONAL CHART

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Animal Bio-ScienceCentre

Dairy ResearchMoorepark

Drystock ResearchGrange (beef)

Athenry (sheep)

Crops ResearchOak Park

EnvironmentalResearch

Johnstown Castle

Economic ResearchAthenry

Curriculum &Quality Assurance

Pig Development Unit

Forestry Development Unit

Horticulture Development Unit

Clonakilty College

College of AmenityHorticulture

Kildalton College

Gurteen College

Pallaskenry College

Ballyhaise College

Clare

Donegal

Galway

B&T TillageProgramme

Environment &GFP Programme

RuralDevelopmentProgramme

B&T DrystockProgramme

Mayo

Louth/Meath/Dublin

Roscommon/Longford

Sligo/Leitrim

Westmeath/Offaly

Cork East

Cork West

Kerry

Kilkenny/Waterford

Laois/Kildare

Limerick

Tipperary

Wexford

Wicklow/Carlow

DIRECTOR

AUTHORITY

Food ResearchDirectorate

AdvisoryDirectorate

Agriculture ResearchDirectorate

Education &Development

Directorate

AdministrationDirectorate

Corporate & Management Services

Directorate

HR

Finance

StaffDevelopment

ICT

SCIENTIFIC SERVICESRMIS, Walsh

Fellowships, Post Docs, Library, Science Writing,

Intellectual Property

CHANGE MANAGEMENTQuality Customer

Service, Access, Business Planning, Risk Management

Evaluation

HEALTH AND SAFETY

PROPERTY SERVICES

B&T DairyProgramme

Cavan/Monaghan

Warrenstown College

Mountbellew College

Food ResearchAshtown

Food ResearchMoorepark

MooreparkTechnology Ltd

Directorates

Research

Training

Enterprise Development Unit

Advisory Management Unit

Programme Management Unit

Administration

Programme

DIRECTOR’S OFFICEPublic Relations & Customer Communications

Foresight & Strategic Planning Internal Audit

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ORGANISATIONAL CHART December 2008

RESEARCH

DAIRYDesign of a National Mating ProgrammeSoftware to screen the Irishpopulation of milk recorded cows to identify genetically superiorcandidate bull dams was developedin close collaboration with the IrishCattle Breeders Federation (ICBF)and the National Cattle BreedingCentre (NCBC). Criteria forselection of potential bull dams such as depth of pedigree, EBI and genetic merit for fertility wereimposed. Bull dams no longer haveto be pedigree registered.

Software was also developed todesign a mating programme to matethe best bulls (primarily ranked onEBI) to the candidate dams tomaximise the EBI of the progeny(i.e., young test sires) whileminimising any long termrepercussions from the accumulation of inbreeding.

This system was implemented by the NCBC in 2008. This is a vitalstep in ensuring the long termcapacity of Ireland to continuouslygenerate genetically superior youngtest sires most suited to Irishproduction systems.

Restricted Access Time to Pasture in Early Lactation In wet weather conditions if cowsremain in the paddock treadingdamage will result in reduced grassgrowth rates during subsequentgrazing rotations. Allowing animalsaccess to pasture for a few hours perday has previously been shown toincrease milk production and milkprotein concentration whencompared to grass silage baseddiets and may be a strategy that canbe implemented during periods ofwet weather.

Following analysis of grazingbehaviour during a study in spring2008 it was clear that cows offeredtwo three-hour periods of pastureaccess only were the most efficientgrazers as they grazed for 98% (353 mins/day) of their timecompared to cows out fulltime (487 mins/day; 37%).

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Improve the competitiveness of agriculture,food and the wider bioeconomy

On-farm systems research carriedout on 16 commercial dairy farmsfrom 2005 to 2007 showed thatlarge potential exists for substantialcost reduction on the dairy farmsanalysed. Highest profitability wasachieved through higher EBIanimals, higher milk proteinpercentage, a more fertile andcompact breeding period, lowerconcentrate supplementation andhigher stocking rates.

BEEFCarcass Quality and MarketBeef carcass prices should reflectmeat yield and market price. Late-maturing continental breeds andtheir crosses now account for over70% of suckler cows, of whichnearly 90% are bred to continentalsire breeds. This has led to anincreased proportion of animalssuitable for the higher-pricedcontinental EU market where prices are highest for lean animalsof good conformation. As 85% ofIrish carcass beef is exported, it is important that the animals meetthe requirements of those markets.

Having a beef price structure,which reflects the value of theanimal, is in the long term interestof the beef industry. Typical beefprices in France and Italy are only nine cents/kg greater than Irelandfor conformation and fat score O3carcasses but are over 60c/kggreater for U3 carcasses, showingthe extent to which carcasses of

good conformation are under-priced in Ireland.The original EU beef carcassclassification scheme involved avisual appraisal on a five-pointscale for conformation (E, U, R, O, Pwith E best) and fatness (1 to 5 with5 fattest).

A comprehensive study wasundertaken by Teagasc Grange to determine the effect of carcassconformation and fat scores onmeat yield and carcass value.

A total of 507 steers,representing the various sections of the carcass classification grid for conformation and fatness, wereused. In addition, 115 young bullsand 40 heifers were dissected.Carcasses were mechanicallygraded according to the EU BeefCarcass Classification Scheme.

The results showed that: on ascale of 1 to 5, a one unit increase incarcass conformation score (e.g. Oto R) at constant fat score increasedmeat yield by 3.5 percentage unitsand carcass value by 18c/kg(5.8%), which is double that paid bymeat processors in Ireland in 2007.In the high-priced continental EUmarkets a one unit increase incarcass conformation score canincrease value by up to 80c/kg.

A one unit increase in carcass fat score on a scale of 1 to 5decreased meat yield by 2.9percentage units and carcass value by 17c/kg (5.2%).

Better differentiation of carcasses isnow required for Ireland as 87% ofsteers and 91% of heifers areconfined to just two conformationclasses - R and O. Likewise, 87% ofsteers and 85% of heifers areconfined to fat classes 3 and 4.Therefore, a 15-point scale isdeemed essential for payment tobe based on conformation andfatness, which is readily achievedusing mechanical classification.

Using a 15-point scale, a one unit increase in carcassconformation score should result in a price increase of at least sixcents/kg (i.e. 18c/kg on the 5-pointscale). This suggested difference inprice is solely based on meat yieldand distribution and does not takeinto account additional factors suchas the higher processing costsassociated with poorer meat yieldor the increased value of betterquality carcasses in certaincontinental EU markets. This wouldresult in further price differentiation.

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From this study Teagasc concludethat two three-hour periods ofpasture access is sufficient for dairy cows in early lactation.Furthermore, animals should not be supplemented with grass silagewhile indoors as this reduces theirmotivation to graze and also resultsin lower milk protein concentration.

Herd HealthInfectious diseases can seriouslyimpact production efficiency and sustainability on dairy farms.The European Union’s (EU’s) animalhealth strategy 2007 - 2013 aims to achieve consistency across EU countries in the area of animalhealth. Ireland is currently laggingbehind its global trading partners in the implementation ofbest–practice disease controlbased on farm health planningincluding biosecurity. A total of 450dairy farmers were surveyed in 20counties to determine how awarethey are of biosecurity and howprepared they are to meet thechallenges of effective diseasecontrol.

The majority (72%) of farmersconsidered biosecurity important.However, 53% stated that a lack ofinformation prevented them fromimplementing biosecurity practices.With 93% and 78% stating that they‘rarely’ or ‘never’ requestedbiosecurity information from theirTeagasc adviser or veterinarypractitioner. The importance of aclosed herd in the prevention ofinfectious disease introduction isunder-promoted, with over half ofdairy farmers operating openherds.

The survey also highlighted that 90% of dairy farmers do not test purchased animals for diseases other than tuberculosisand brucellosis. A lack ofknowledge and advice was mostcommonly stated as the reason forthe under-utilisation of diagnostictesting (65%). Only 20% of farmers stated that they alwaysimplemented proper quarantineprocedures. The study highlightedthe need to present biosecurity asan economically feasible package.

Increasing Dairy FarmProfitability in the North-EastIn 2004, a new research initiativewas set up in the North East basedat Ballyhaise Agricultural College.The objective of the programmeled by Moorepark is to increase the efficiency of milk production in the region. In the initial stages, acommodity group was establishedwith representatives from the fourdairy co-ops in the region(Lakeland Dairies, Town ofMonaghan, Connacht Gold,Donegal Co-op) as well asrepresentatives from Teagascadvisory and research to providedirection and evaluation of theprogramme. A similar collaborativeprogramme is being carried out in Northern Ireland by the Agri-Food and Bioscience Institute.

The programme involves twoapproaches; firstly grazing systemstudies at Ballyhaise AgriculturalCollege to develop high profitsustainable milk productionsystems and secondly on-farmstudies to identify the variousconstraints and limitations toincreased farm profitability in the region.

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GOAL 1

Dr. Eddie O’Callaghan addressing a group on atour of Teagasc Moorepark at the 50th anniversarycelebrations of the founding of An Foras Talúntais.

Two cultivars of red clover (Merviot and Ruttinova) were eachsown in monoculture or withperennial ryegrass (cv. Greengold)in August, 2001. They received 0 or50kg inorganic N fertiliser/ha inmid-March each year and had afirst-cut harvest date in late-May ormid-June.

Within each of these harvestschedules there were three furtherharvests by mid-November.In addition to the red clover plots, there were a further eighttreatments to provide a moreconventional benchmark to whichred clover could be compared.

Monoculture plots of perennialryegrass (cv. Greengold) received0, 50, 100 or 150kg inorganic N/hain mid-March and immediately afterthe first three harvests, and hadsimilar harvest dates to the redclover. Both red clover varietieswere equally successful. All plotswere similarly harvested andreceived adequate P and K inputs.

Treatments that resulted in highyields of good quality herbage andpersistent swards involved sowingred clover in a binary mixture withperennial ryegrass, applying noinorganic nitrogen fertiliser inMarch, and taking the first harvestin late-May rather than mid-June.Under these conditions, perennialryegrass receiving 0 or 200kgN/ha/year had an average annualyield of 9.5 and 14.8 tonnes drymatter/ha whereas the optimum red clover-based treatments had anaverage annual yield of 15.6 tonnesdry matter/ha.

Meat Authentication – What Did the Animal Eat?It is well established that the pre-slaughter diet of animals caninfluence the nutritional andelemental composition of meat.It follows that analysis of meat canyield information about the pre-slaughter diet of animals. This isincreasingly relevant as consumersbecome more concerned about the connection between animal dietand the nutritional quality andsafety of the meat they consume.

Information on the dietarybackground of animals is alsoimportant in validating claimsaround the production of brandedproducts such as “grass-fed” beefor “corn-fed” chicken. A group ofscientists from Grange, UCD, Franceand the UK, have used light elementstable isotope ratio analysis (SIRA)to obtain information about thedietary background of foodanimals.

Red CloverRed clover (Trifolium pratense) isconsidered a short-lived perennialherbage legume that can be highlyproductive for two and sometimesthree years, and whose uprightgrowth habit makes it particularlysuited for hay and silage making.In Ireland, where permanentgrassland dominates farmland, it isimportant to define aspects of themanagement of red clover that willimprove its persistence and itscontribution to feed supply.

An experiment commenced in 2001 and concluded in 2008 to quantify the impacts of cultivar,companion grass, harvest scheduleand nitrogen fertiliser on the yieldand the estimated nutritive valueand ensilability of swards based on red clover. In addition, a majoraim was to assess the impacts ofthese treatments on persistence of red clover over several years.There were 16 treatments with red clover.

22


GOAL 1

Laois native Patrick Gowing joinedTeagasc in late 2006 and hasworked on the Business andTechnology (B&T) service forSligo/Leitrim since its launch in2007. The key objective of theprogramme is to improve farmprofits in the area. Since the launch,the number of farmers completingProfit Monitor analysis has beenincreased from 5 to 30 which hasenabled benchmarking based onreal data.

“As with any part of the country we focus on grasslandmanagement,” says Patrick. “Theaims are the same but the researchpractices sometimes have to betailored to suit the area as there ishuge variance in soil type acrossthe two counties. The maindifference in the wetter parts of thearea is the growth potential mid-season. This can be seen veryclearly in Leitrim where there is ahuge peak of grass production mid-season and comparatively littlein late spring or autumn.”

Discussion groups are a huge focus of the dairy programme inSligo/Leitrim. There are now fivediscussion groups running acrossthe area. “The groups are managedto give all farmers a chance toparticipate and tailored to theirneeds,” says Patrick. “Most groupsare made up of full-timecommercial dairy farmers but wealso have one discussion groupwhich was set up in 2008 toaccommodate small scale farmersand part-time dairy farmers. Thisgroup meets during the evening insummer months and allows farmerswith similar issues, in particularlabour, to discuss how best toimplement new managementtechniques on smaller scale farms.”

The B&T programme in the areais still growing and adapting. But thefocus remains to deliver increasedfarm profits to dairy farmers.The effect can be clearly seenacross the region, Connacht Goldthe local milk processor had thelargest increase in milk protein percentage in 2008.

PATRICK GOWINGDairy AdviserTeagasc, Sligo

23Dr. Alastair Black (right) explains grass plant structure at the Teagasc Grange open day.

Patrick Gowing (right) with Sligo dairy farmer Joseph Dunphy.

TILLAGEMinimum Tillage (“MinTill”)Traditional crop establishment,where the soil is inverted duringploughing and cultivatedintensively, is successful but highcosts, slow work rates and concernsabout sustainability, has led tointerest in more energy efficientminimum tillage techniques.

A review of eight years’ winterwheat trial results indicates thatcrop yields were not affected byadopting min-till. While min-tillestablished winter barley andoilseed rape yields have also beencompetitive, results to date fromspring barley are not conclusive.Grass weed control costs aregenerally increased where min-tillis adopted, but machinery costscan be reduced by €66/ha. Themachinery cost and reduced labourrequirements make the systemattractive to larger growers.

Grass BreedingOak Park continues to deliverexceptional output from the foragegrass and clover breeding team. In2008, seven new perennialryegrasses were awarded NationalListing and three varieties,Tyrconnel, Kintyre and January,were added to the RecommendedList. Their yield, persistence andquality characteristics willcontribute to lower cost grass-based production systems.

Evaluation of the AgronomicPotential of Oilseed Rape inIrelandThe search for an attractive breakcrop continues. Work on winteroilseed rape indicated that theoptimum seed rate may be higherunder Irish conditions than hasbeen reported for other Europeancountries. Hybrid cultivars have notshown any consistent benefit overconventional cultivars when sown atthe optimum sowing time into goodsoil conditions.

25

SHEEPMaize silage can be producedabout 20% cheaper than grasssilage potentially offering significantsavings on ewe feeding costsduring mid and late pregnancy.Studies at Teagasc Athenry showthat the maturity of the maize crophas no effect on lamb birth weightor subsequent growth, althoughewes offered maize silage from amature crop were significantlyheavier at lambing compared withthese ewes on silage from maizeharvested at a less advanced stageof maturity. Protein supplementstudies showed that concentrateinput in late pregnancy can bereduced when ewes are offeredmaize silage and it can replacegood quality grass silage in the dietof pregnant ewes.

Fascioliasis Studies in SheepLiver fluke represent a majorchallenge for sheep production on farms with wet areas thatprovide a suitable habitat for themud snail, which is the obligatoryintermediate host in the life cycle of fluke. Control of the impact offluke on animal performance hastypically relied on appropriateanthelmintics. A study at Leenanehill sheep farm evaluated theefficacy of four classes ofanthelmintic. Results showed thatthe fluke on this farm are resistantto triclabendazole as the eggreduction observed at 21 days posttreatment was only 70% comparedwith 100% for the otheranthelmintics tested. It is likely thatthis situation exists on many sheepfarms and planned surveys areurgently needed to establish theextent of the resistance.

Enhancing Lamb Litter SizeEvidence for a third gene withprofound effects on ovarian functionhas emerged from on-going studieson the genetic control of ovulationrate in sheep. Teagasc researchershave identified mutations in thegenes of Cambridge sheep. If thiseffect is confirmed then this mutationcould be exploited to significantlyincrease the incidence of twinbirths while keeping the incidenceof triplet litters low. This wouldmake increased prolificacy moreacceptable at farm level and alsoreduce the costs associated withrearing and management of tripletlitters.

Artificial Insemination (A.I.) for SheepResearch to facilitate morewidespread use of A.I. in sheepbreeding programmes continues.These studies include theevaluation of new diluents forsemen and the shelf life of fresh-diluted semen. Studies have shownthat the reduction in pregnancy ratewhen semen is stored for 24 hours,compared with fresh semen, is onlynine percentage points. This meansthat semen used up to 24 hourspost collection under practicalconditions yields an acceptablepregnancy rate. This findingrepresents a significant advance onthe current practice and protocolwhich requires semen to be usedon the day of collection.

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GOAL 1

Adviser John Cannonleads a sheep discussion.

FOOD RESEARCH

Novel Biocontrol Agents for Food Pathogens:Research conducted on novelbiocontrol agents showed that a dairy extract could inhibit a range of bacterial pathogens on beef carcasses. It has potential to become a beef carcass and beef productdecontamination/antimicrobialtechnology for application inassuring beef safety. The dairyextract is particularly attractive tothe beef industry because it is a‘natural’ product. The antimicrobialeffect is instantaneous which meansit does not require approval norwould its application necessitate areduction in line speed.

Recommendation for ControlMethod for Clostridia SpeciesLinked to Blown Pack Spoilage of Meat:Vacuum packed meat primals areintermittently contaminated withgas producing spoilage Clostridiaspecies. which results in ‘blown’spoiled packs and major economiclosses for the beef sector. A novelClostridia species was identifiedfrom blown packs and work wascompleted on the development of amolecular assay for this spoilageorganism.

The effect of spore inoculum,storage time and temperature onblown pack spoilage and the role of Vacuum Pack heat shrinkage in activating spores and reducingshelf-life was established.

A control strategy was developedbased on removing the heatshrinkage stage in vacuum packingand this has been communicated tobeef processors, many of whomhave incorporated this change intotheir processes.

Patents and Technology Transfer of Novel Microbial Assays:In 2008 research on novelmolecular assays for food bornemicro-organisms resulted in aEuropean patent application for anovel gene which can be used in a molecular assay to determine thebacterial load (total viable count) of a food sample. A Europeanpatent application on a novel genepresent in Clostridia species linkedto Blown Pack Meat Spoilage wasalso filed. With the intellectualproperty now protected discussionsare underway with commercialdiagnostic companies and testinglaboratories re licensing options forthese assays.

A novel molecular assay forSalmonella was also developed and its application to meat samplesvalidated. The assay has beensuccessfully transferred to theZoonooses Reference Laboratory at the Department of Agriculture,Fisheries and Food Laboratories inBackweston. Discussions are alsoongoing with commercial testinglaboratories re potential licensingoptions for the assay.

New Food Databases:!n 2008, the Food for Health database programme was launched.This ambitious programme co-ordinated by Ashtown FoodResearch Centre aims to developthree food databases on chemicalresidues, microbial pathogens and nutritional composition.These databases will give a highlytransparent picture of the safety andhealthiness of the Irish food supplyand will facilitate the application ofnew risk based approaches for thecontrol and management ofcontaminants in Irish food.

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Potato BlightThe existence of A1 and A2 mating types of the potato blightfungus may pose significant new problems for blight control.Mixed populations of A1 and A2can recombine sexually, producingoospores, which facilitate a wholenew route of infection early in the season. An all-island study ofthe potato blight population wasundertaken in 2008 in collaborationwith the Agri-Food and BiosciencesInstitute (AFBI) in Northern Ireland.The survey revealed a dramaticincrease in the number of A2 blightstrains, with over 25% of isolatestested being A2. As part of thestudy further phenotypic andmolecular characterisations are ongoing, and will determine if sexual reproduction occurs.This will aid the continuingdevelopment of integrated disease control strategies.

Plant GenomicsIn the area of plant genomics OakPark researchers made severalvaluable contributions to availablepublic datasets which will increasethe potential for bioscience-basedapproaches for the improvement of plant species important to Irishagriculture. Teagasc is currentlyinvolved in the internationalinitiative to sequence the potatogenome. In 2008 Oak Park releasedover five million nucleotides ofpotato genomic sequences into thepublic sequence database(Genbank), making it the fourthlargest contributor of publiclyavailable potato genome sequencein the world to date.

Results from the sequencingdata are already impacting thepotato breeding programme, wheregenetic markers for resistance topotato cyst nematode (PCN),developed using the genomesequencing data, are now activelybeing used by potato breeders forthe selection of PCN resistant linesin the field. Oak Park is also leadingthe way in genomics of grassspecies and in 2008, sequencedand released the chloroplastgenome of perennial ryegrass.

Risk Assessment of GM CropsIn the area of co-existence, andassessment of the impact ofcultivating GM crops in Ireland,in 2008, the Oak Park programmecontinued to provide data relevantto both the farming community and those involved in the legislativedecision-making process.Co-existence guidelines, and the cost/benefit of cultivatinggenetically modified, herbicidetolerant oilseed rape in Ireland wasestimated. Field-based andcomputer-modelling studies ongene flow to wild relatives andconventional crops in oilseed rapeand potato were continued. A list ofGM traits relevant to the Irish tillagesector up to 2020 in light ofpredicted climate and legislativechange was developed.

26


GOAL 1

Teagasc potato specialist, Matt Molloy (right) and host farmer Seamus Lynch examining potatoes at a potato farm walk in Donegal.

Paddy Ward Teagasc, Ashtown,Food Research Centre.

Food Based Bio-Delivery Systems/Healthier Meats:The know-how to produce meatproducts containing a range offunctional ingredients such as plantextracts or beneficial fats has beendeveloped. The safety and efficacyof a range of nutraceuticals wastested and their effect on meat-product quality and their efficacy in the final product was examined.The safety of using plant extractsfrom Rosemary, Oregano, Sage andEchinacea in meat products hasbeen established. IC50 values havebeen determined for lutein,sesamol and elagic acid. Positiveeffects such as reduced oxidationhave been identified with few or nonegative effects on sensoryproperties, colour and texture.

Some nutraceuticals reducedlipid oxidation in raw pork sausagesstored aerobically and in modifiedatmosphere for up to 35 days,without adverse effects on colour.Similar results were found forcooked pork sausages indicatingthe thermal stability of the addednutraceuticals. All meat productshad similar or enhanced microbialstability at the end of the 35 daystorage period. The nutraceuticalshad no effect on tenderness,juiciness, texture or flavoursuggesting that they haveconsiderable potential forincorporation into pork products.These results can help the Irishindustry to develop meat productsas a functional food deliverysystem.

Fingerprint Spectroscopic Models for Food AuthenticityScreening of food samples for foodauthenticity is a requirement for thefood processing and retailingindustries. A variety of rapid, non-destructive spectroscopic methodsfor meeting this need have beencompleted. A significant,international competence in thedeployment of these methods tofood classification issues has beendemonstrated and disseminatedinternationally.

Commercialisation of New Gluten-Free Bread Formulations:Gluten-free bread formulationsdeveloped at Ashtown are beingcommercialised in an Irish gluten-free bakery. The formulations forhealthy gluten-free breads weredeveloped during a three yearproject under Enterprise Ireland’sCommercialisation Fund. Theycontain healthy gluten-freealternatives to wheat flour.

Such flours include thepseudocereals amaranth,buckwheat and quinoa, which havebeen shown to have significantlyhigher protein, Vitamin E, antioxidantand polyphenol contents comparedto wheat flour, while at the same timefunctioning as viable ingredients forgluten-free breads. Optimal levelsof these flours have now beenestablished, and the follow-upcommercialisation activity is beingundertaken by the private companywith aid from Enterprise Ireland.

Pilot Scale Extraction ofAntioxidants from ApplePommace:A pilot scale method for theextraction of antioxidants using foodgrade solvents was developed in2008. Several technologies werecompared to identify whichcombination of temperatures andextracts yielded the optimumamount of the potentially health-enhancing molecules.

Food for HealthHighly significant five-yearcollaborative research projectswere awarded to Moorepark FoodResearch Centre (MFRC) during2008: funding was renewed for theAlimentary Pharmabiotic Centre fora second five-year period and theIndustry-led, Enterprise IrelandFood for Health Ireland (FHI) andthe ELDERMET projects werelaunched.

A research programme aimedat identification and extraction ofbiologically active componentsfrom marine sources - MarineFunctional Foods, NUTRAMARA,also got underway in conjunctionwith colleagues at TeagascAshtown.

Collectively, these projects formpart of a major initiative by Teagascon Foods for Health through itsVISION programme which aims toimprove understanding of humanmetabolic processes that areinfluenced by lifestyle and dietarybehaviour while at the same timeproviding opportunities for thedevelopment of functional foodsand ingredients with the necessaryscientific evidence to supporthealth claims based on improvedphysiological performance.

A particular feature of thisprogramme is that the performanceof gut health in age groupsspanning the young born (earlyinfant nutrition) to the elderly(ELDERMET) is being researchedin conjunction with UCCcollaborators. Furthermore,the programme’s focus on the role of early infant nutrition fits well with the Centre’s increasingunderpinning research and R&Dinvolvement with multinational infant milk formula manufacturers –many of whom have substantialmanufacturing operations inIreland.

Food structure studies duringthe year were augmented when the facilities of Moorepark’s recentlyestablished National Food ImagingCentre (NFIC) were commissioned.Increasingly, food structureresearch is linking into the Foodsfor Health programme wherecurrent studies relating a sensoryattribute such as creaminess of low fat foods to structure impacts on both the consumer’s enjoymentof that product and the satiation thatis experienced following ingestion.

Lactic Acid BacteriaLactic acid bacteria (LAB) are key to the successful manufactureof cheese and fermented milkproducts, and offer researchers a lot more potential now that thegenome of one particular strain,Lactobacillus helveticus, has been sequenced and published by researchers in the Food Cultures& Safety Dept. This strain is notedfor improvement of cheese flavour.During 2008 two novel beta-glucan(an exopolysaccharide) producinglactic acid bacteria (one from kefirgrain i.e. Lactobacillus kefiri andone from human intestine i.e.Bifidobacterium longum) wereidentified and characterised. Thesestrains have potential to beexploited for the production offunctional food ingredients.

Food and HealthThe role of composition of gut florato overall intestinal health is beingstudied in conjunction with UCCcollaborators especially at an earlystage in life e.g. 4-day-old babiesfed a Lactobacillus probiotic strainexcreted very high levels of theprobiotic in their faeces for overtwo weeks. These babies arecurrently being followed up in thestudy one year later.

Genetics and GenomicsGenomics is transforming ourability to understand how bacteriafunction and how best to exploitthem. In 2008, the sequence ofLactobacillus helveticus, a strainwhich is used for improvement ofcheese flavour, was published bythe Moorepark group.

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GOAL 1

29

Mary Rea demonstrates intestinal bacteria growing on agar plates to dairy farmersAndrew and Hannah O’Shaughnessy.

Antimicrobials – Biopreservationto Anti-infectivesThis research programme themeaims to improve food safety andhuman health using novelantimicrobials. The projectrepresents a close collaborationwith Professor Colin Hill andconcerns the discovery andexploitation of novel peptides(bacteriocins) which killundesirable bacteria.

A novel bacteriocin thuricinwhich has a very narrow spectrumof inhibition against Clostridiumdifficile was discovered. Molecularand genetic analyses of theantimicrobial demonstrate that it defines a whole new class ofantimicrobials. These findings havebeen patented and licensed to anIrish company.

The antimicrobial Salivaricin hasbeen identified as a probiotic traitwhich probably contributes to theability of a probiotic mix to reduceSalmonella carriage in pigs.In 2008 the Dutch starter culturecompany CSK renewed a furthertwo year client contract with theDepartment. To date this projecthas delivered improved startercultures to the company. In 2008,this project discovered aLactobacillus strain that wasassociated with strong anti-mouldand anti-Listeria properties.This strain looks likely to havingmajor applications for cheesemanufacture.

Cell BiologyThe Biotechnology Department also conducts research on howeukaryotic genes respond tobioactives in vitro and in vivo.The programme spans a widerange of research topics including,for example, immune generesponse to probiotics for thetreatment of mastitis.

Mastitis trials were performed inorder to understand the udderresponse to a Streptococcusdysgalactiae challenge. Such workhas demonstrated the ability of thepathogen to evade the immunesystem and work is on-going todesign novel therapeutics to evictinternalised pathogens.

Food StructureAdvanced microscopy techniquesprovided by the FIRM 2006 SpecialEquipment fund enabled the NFICat Moorepark to undertakeresearch and provide analyticalservices to industry and academia.This capability is assisting foodresearchers to generate proteinmicroparticles as fat mimetics – theperformance of which are beingstudied in terms of the relationshipbetween creaminess and texture oflow- and zero-fat yoghurt systems.

Bio-Functional Ingredients Buttermilk, a by-product ofbuttermaking, was studied as animportant source of milk’s naturallyoccurring emulsifying layer knownas milk fat globule membrane(MFGM). MFGM consists of manyprotein and phospholipidcomponents which are also knownto perform important physiologicalfunctions but have not beenexplored in terms of their potentialas functional ingredients.

During 2008, buttermilk fractionsproduced using various processingtreatments were demonstrated tohave anti-microbial and anti-canceractivity. Anti-cancer properties arealso of significance in the case of -lactalbumin, a major whey proteinfraction that is a key ingredientwhen aiming to further ‘humanise’infant milk formula. However, thisparticular bioactivity occursfollowing complex formationbetween - lactalbumin and oleicacid, and the Moorepark researchteam succeeded in simplifying thechemical steps involved in suchcomplex formation.

Artisan Food Technology Support ProgramA two-year programme, fundedjointly by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Foodand the Department of Community,Gaeltacht & Rural Affairs,commenced at the beginning of2008. The objective was to provideadvice and technical support to thegrowing number of rural foodproducers in order to help themcomply with the extensive range of legislation governing theproduction and retailing of foods.

This program was directed bythe Food Processing & FunctionalityDept and involved placement of twospecialist food technologists – oneeach at Ashtown and MooreparkFood Research Centres. Extensiveconsultation and reporting on theoperation of this program tookplace with the sponsoringgovernment departments during2008, including an interface withthe Teagasc Rural DevelopmentAdvisory Service dealing with foodproducers and tourism activities.Liaison by the Moorepark-basedArtisan Food Technologist and the dairy inspectorate of theDepartment of Agriculture,Fisheries & Food ensured continuitybetween the advice given to clientsand requirements of the regulatoryagency.

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Rosemary joined Teagasc in 1997from the University of Limerickwhere she lectured on their EquineScience Degree Programme.

Rosemary competes inDressage and in 2008 won twoNational Championships. In thehorse world you need to be ableto‘walk the walk’to gain credibility.She is an examiner for the PonyClub and the British Horse Societyand is involved in the Horse SportIreland and Teagasc’YoungBreeders Training. This has beenset up to encourage young people to become actively involved inbreeding, showing and judgingmares and young horses.

In Kildalton Rosemary established acourse to deliver knowledge andskills training to students and tomaximise their potential andabilities. In 1998 a one year coursein horse breeding and training wasstarted with 13 students. This hasexpanded to a two year course withfour programmes and has 50students.

In 2006 the interest in studmanagement had grown andKildalton began a two year studcourse, students spend timetraining in some of the best studs in Ireland – Kildangan, Coolmoreand Ballylynch to name but a fewand a high percentage are offeredfull time jobs on graduation.

“We have incorporated theBritish Horse Society exam system to allow students to qualify asInstructors/Teachers as part of theireducation allowing them dualcertification,” says Rosemary.

“We made history by holding thefirst British Horse Society Instructorexam outside the UK and we are aBritish Horse Society Instructortraining centre, the only one inIreland qualified to teach to thislevel.”

All courses throw up stars andours is no different, whilst we haveproduced students who have goneon to do Farriery, Equine Dentistry,Teaching, Grooms, Stud Managers,Vet Nursing and Special NeedsTrainers – two Kildalton alumni that come to mind are CaptainGeoffery Curran who competed at the Olympics and won the World Cup and Ciara Hurley who is Assistant Stud Manager for thetrainer Aidan O’Brien.

ROSEMARY GAFFNEYEquine Course DirectorKildalton College, Piltown, Co Kilkenny

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GOAL 1

Adult education courses continuedapace during 2008 with REPS,Internet training, Financial andTechnical training and RuralDevelopment courses conductedaround the country. 140 REPSCourses were held during the yearattended by 3,900 farmers.

The BETTER (BusinessEnvironment and Technologythrough Training Extension andResearch) farm programme forcattle and sheep was established in2008 in conjunction with theFarmers Journal. These BETTERfarms will form a major part of theAdvisory /Research extensionprogramme for drystock farmers inthe years ahead.

Over 41,000 farmers availed of intensive Environmental Servicesfrom Teagasc Advisory during2008. There was an 8% increase in REPS participants by the end of the year. Teagasc facilitation of REPS accounted for the transfer of €170m to farmers.Teagasc organised 100 farm safety short courses which includedtraining on Farm Safety Statements.

Teagasc Training for the AnimalWelfare, Recording and BreedingSchemeOver 32,000 beef farmersparticipated in Teagasc trainingsessions required for the AnimalWelfare, Recording and BreedingScheme. Teagasc provided over200 training sessions for producerswho applied for the €80 per headpayment under this schemeadministered by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

These training sessions,(pictured above) which werecompulsory for producersparticipating in the scheme, wereprovided countrywide by theTeagasc advisory service at martsand other centres.

33

ADVISORY

2008 was another very busy year for the Advisory Service with client numbers exceeding 43,000.It was also the first full year ofimplementation of the newAdvisory Programmes – Businessand Technology; Environment andGood Farm Practice; RuralDevelopment and Adult Education.

Advisers supported over39,500 clients with the SinglePayment Scheme. There was asignificient increase in onlineapplications - up by 20 per cent on 2007.

By year end over 14,400 farmershad been assisted with Farm Waste Management applications.41,000 farmers were planned andsupported in REPS by Teagascadvisers. More than 5,000 farmers attended 45 Public GoodEnvironmental Awareness Events on bio-diversity, cross compliance,and nutrient use efficiency.

A key feature in 2008 was thelevel of activity among adviserswith farmer discussion groups.In all, over 300 discussion groups in dairying ,cattle ,sheep and tillagewere facilitated by advisers withmore than 3,000 meetings on farms.

Advisers conducted over 105,000farm visits/planning consultationswith farmers during 2008. A total of 1,597 eProfit Monitor plans werecompleted by advisers with theirclients.

A redesigned series of clientnewsletters were introduced in July2008 and were centrally distributedto all 43,000 clients monthly.

The Today’s farm magazine wassent to all clients bimonthly duringthe year. On line distribution of soilanalysis results was introducednationwide and was accompaniedby a 30 percent increase in soilsampling during the crucial monthsof September and October.

32

Farmers attending training sessionfor the Animal Welfare, Recording

and Breeding Scheme

Pat Moylan, Teagasc,Kilkenny picturedaddressing farmers at the Teagasc/GlanbiaDairy Monitor Farm Walkwhich was held onMichael Power's farm,Graine, Urlingford,Co. Kilkenny.

A section of the attendance at a Teagasc farm walk in Waterford.

BEEFTeagasc cattle clients who havecompleted profit monitors haveincreased profit by 8% per annumsince 2003, with much of thisimprovement coming fromimproved technical efficiency andbetter marketing as premia receiptsper hectare actually declined duringthe period. 26% of suckler farmersand 43% of non-breeding farms,with profit monitors, achieved agross margin exceeding €500 perhectare.

Beef output per hectare is animportant physical measure thatinfluences cattle profitability and is determined by the interaction ofstocking rate and individual animalperformance. An excellent standardis to achieve or exceed 750kg beefliveweight per hectare – 14% ofsuckler farms and non-breedingfarms exceeded 750kg beefliveweight per hectare while 38%exceeded 600kg beef liveweightproduced per hectare.

The top third of suckling farmsachieved an extra gross margin per cow of €413 compared with thebottom third. This amounts to over€16,500 for a 40 hectare sucklingfarm and represents the achievablereward for operating an efficientsuckling system.

Two rounds of cattle farm walkstook place in each Area Unit - inFebruary/March and July,concentrating on early grazing,grassland management,maximising performance fromgrass and improved breeding in thesuckler herd. 78 farm walks wereheld with a combined attendance ofalmost 4,500. Cattle discussiongroups were also a key methodused in technology transfer in 2008with 61 active cattle discussiongroups holding 244 meetings with a combined attendance of 4,100.

Over 230 clinics on the newAnimal Welfare, Recording andBreeding Scheme for Suckler herds were held in spring with an attendance in excess of 8,500.The main training programmecommenced in September 2008with over 200 training sessions held at livestock marts betweenSeptember and Decemberattracting an attendance ofapproximately 34,000.

A series of 25 cattle seminars were held in Novemberconcentrating on winter nutritionand identifying the key variableswithin farmers control that influenceprofitability at farm level.

The BETTER Farm BeefProgramme commenced inSeptember and is aimed atimproving profitability on beeffarms across the country. This is a joint programme with the IrishFarmers Journal over a three-yearperiod and is aimed initially at suckler farms.

Sixteen are already selected and they will be used to setbenchmarks for efficientproduction, to encouragetechnology transfer, to measure the impact of adoption of newtechnologies and to identify areas for further research.The information generated willbe disseminated through the IrishFarmers Journal and through theTeagasc discussion group networkand other Teagasc public events.

35

DairyingThe year 2008 was difficult for mostdairy farmers due to significantincreases in meal, fertiliser and fuel related costs, plus a mostdisagreeable grazing season.This lead to lower milk productionin some regions and the country asa whole ended up 3% under quota.

Based on Dairy Profit Monitordata, total farm profit fell by 5%,but in some regions it decreasedby over 20%.This was due tovariable costs increasing by 19%and fixed costs by 8%. Milk price at35c/litre was more or less the sameas 2007 – in part due to a 1.0 and2.0% increase in protein and fatrespectively. However, milk solidsper cow decreased by 2% to 397kgs. Net margin per litre was down by 9%.

In the delivery of the Teagasc DairyAdvisory Programme, Dairyadvisers held over 200 farm walksthroughout the year which attracteda total attendance of over 16,000.National Dairy Conferences whichwere held in Cork and Athlone hada combined attendance of over1,100 farmers and Industrypersonnel.

Discussion group activityformed a major element of ourDairy Advisory Programme with229 groups facilitated by dairyadvisers in all 18 Area Units. Over2,200 discussion group meetingstook place in 2008. Dairy advisersconducted more than 15,000 farmvisits and met in excess of 15,000clients on a consultancy basis intheir offices in 2008.

EBI increased by €13 to bringthe EBI per herd to €60. The meancalving date of March 17 wasmaintained in 2008 while A.I.usage increased by 25% to 130,000inseminations. Milk recorded cownumbers increased by 14% to498,321 cows which representsnearly half the national herd.

Grass utilised per hectare was amajor focus and was maintainedeven with reduced fertiliser inputs(193kgsN/ha for a stocking rate of2.31 cows/ha) in very difficult grassgrowing year. Over 1,000 dairyfarmers participated in Teagasc’sgrass budgeting programme.

Teagasc was involved in jointdairy programmes with Glanbia,Dairygold, Connacht Gold,Tipperary, Kerry, West Cork Co-ops, Wexford and Centenary.A joint venture with Germinal Seedsto promote better grasslandmanagement was very successfulin its first year. Our joint programmewith ICBF to promote bettergenetics, fertility management,more A.I. use and milk recordingcontinues to be successfulculminating in over 900 farmersparticipating in the EBI discussionGroup Competition.

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Edmund and Padraig McCarthy,Lixnaw, members of the joint KerryAgribusiness/Teagasc programme

‘Focus on Profit’ with TeagascAdviser Ger Courtney

Walsh Fellow, Emma McGeoughwith beef specialist Bernard Smythat the Teagasc Grange open day.

TILLAGE AND ENERGY CROPSIn 2008 tillage farmers felt the painof a “price squeeze” resulting fromextremely volatile grain and inputprices. Grain prices peaked athistorically high levels in the spring and dropped to rockbottom at harvest. Similarly, inputprices peaked in the springparticularly fertilisers, energy and rented land. Overall cerealproduction for 2008 is estimated at2.4 million tonnes, up 21% on 2007,despite the difficult harvest – thewettest August on record.

The soil analysis service has been transformed from acumbersome paper entry system toa sleek online service where resultscan be accessed by advisers andfarmers online with major efficiencyin staff and turnaround time forresults. Two hundred and thirty oneTeagasc staff were trained on theuse of SAOL (Soil Analysis Online).The soil sample numbers forSeptember/October 2008 are up 30% as a result of a focusedcampaign despite the bad weather.

The National Tillage CropsConference, National Bio-energyConference and National PotatoConference attracted over 1,000growers in the spring. In addition,almost 2,000 growers attendedspring seminars around the country.The Tillage Crops Roadshow“Focus on fertilisers” helpedfarmers to address the massiveincrease in fertiliser costs.

The National Year of the Potatoattracted much attention fromTeagasc advisory and researchdirectorates. The “Meet the Spuds”challenge attracted over 1,700National schools to participate in agrowing and knowledgecompetition. Teagasc Advisory alsoplayed a key role in the PotatoConference and the highlysuccessful field event Potato ‘08“The Quest for Quality”.

The new National Tillage CropsForum in September secured theinvolvement of stakeholders, fromgrowers to end users, in dealingwith a difficult harvest andformulating plans for 2009.

SHEEPOutput per hectare on sheep farmswith Profit Monitors increased by17% on the previous year duemainly to a 22% increase in lambssold per hectare on foot ofimproved weaning percentage andstocking rate. The top third of sheepfarms with Profit Monitor achievedan advantage of €25 per lamb overthe bottom third due to betterselling price (€8), lower productioncosts (€13) and lower replacementcosts (€4). This amounts to over€15,000 for a 40 hectare sheepfarm showing the huge scope thatexists for income improvement onthe majority of sheep farms throughimproved technical performance.

Lamb output per hectare has a huge influence on sheepprofitability and Teagasc set atarget of 12.5 lambs or higher forcommercial producers. 45% ofsheep farmers with Profit Monitorsexceeded sales of 12.5 lambs perhectare and 26% exceeded sales of 15 lambs per hectare.

Over 550 farmers attended the two Teagasc National SheepConferences held in February2008. Professor Jon Hickford,Lincoln University, New Zealand,world expert in animal breedingand genetics addressed bothconferences. Presentations werealso made by Bord Bia and leadingTeagasc sheep research andadvisory specialists.

Two rounds of sheep farm walkstook place in sheep producingareas in April and July/Augustconcentrating on maximisingproduction from grass andimproved breeding. A total of 46sheep farm walks were held with an

attendance of almost 1,500. Sheepdiscussion groups operated in themain sheep areas with 29 groupsholding almost 100 meetings withtotal attendance of over 1,400.Sheep seminars at 19 locationsattracted over 1,000 sheep farmers.

The BETTER (Business,Environment and Technologythrough Training ,Extention andResearch) Farm Sheep programmealso commenced with the selectionof three hill and three lowland farmson which recording and base lineinformation is completed. Theselection of additional lowlandfarms is underway. The aim is tohave a BETTER sheep farm in allthe main sheep areas. In addition to the objectives for the BETTERBeef farms, the BETTER Sheepfarms will be key focal points in the development of the new ICBFsheep breed improvementprogramme (Sheep Ireland).

36


GOAL 1

Pictured at the Potatoes ’08 ‘The quest for quality’ event in Teagasc, Oak Park were Prof. Jimmy Burke, Head of Centre; Dr. Trevor Storey, UCD, Joe Dennigan and TrevorSargent, T.D. and Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

37

Teagasc eCollegeIn 2008, 250 students registeredwith the Teagasc eCollege for the online delivery of the FETACLevel 6 Advanced Certificate inAgriculture (ACA). The FETACLevel 6 ACA course is the newreplacement course for the 180hours. Two ACA online courseswere developed and initiated by theTeagasc eCollege – one beginning in March 2008 and another inSeptember 2008. The ACA courseduration is 18 months and studentsrequire 115 credits to pass thecourse.

Two models were employed for the delivery of the ACA onlinecourses - the Colleges model whichis implemented by agriculturalcollege staff only and the onlineGroup Co-Ordinators model whichis implemented by Teagasceducation officers, AMU staff andagricultural college staff.

There are now 95 eTutorstrained to deliver the onlineprogrammes. The TeagasceCollege will continue to provideadministration support for thedelivery of the online poultrycourse LL47. Introduction to Free Range Egg Production.

39

EDUCATION ANDDEVELOPMENT

Young Entrant TrainingFollowing the 25% increase inenrolments in 2007 there was afurther 36% increase in 2008bringing the overall increase overtwo years to 70%. Further educationprogrammes were delivered ateight colleges and at a number of local centres in agriculture,horticulture, horse breeding andtraining and forestry. SpecialisedAdvanced Courses were alsoprovided in Dairy HerdManagement, Machinery and Crop Management, DrystockManagement and AgriculturalMechanisation. A total of 755students enrolled in 2008 in furthertraining programmes in collegeswhile the total overall numberparticipating in these programmeswas 3,545.

Teagasc deliver eleven higherlevel education programmes inconjunction with Institutes ofTechnology. These programmesinclude Agriculture, Horticulture,Agricultural Science, Agribusiness,Equine Students and AgriculturalMechanisation. A total of 294students enrolled in higher leveltraining programmes while the totaloverall number participating inthese programmes was 693.

Participants in further educationprogrammes can transfer intohigher level courses if they achievea merit or distinction and all higherlevel students can progress to level8 (honours degree level) on theNational Qualifications Framework,and beyond.

Adult Farmer EducationThe Education and DevelopmentDirectorate, in conjunction with the Advisory Directorate were also involved in the delivery of acomprehensive Adult FarmerEducation programme during 2008.In total, ca. 11,000 adult farmerscompleted education and trainingprogrammes. The biggest categorywas the REPs training courses with a total of ca. 3,900 participants.In addition to the above adultmodules were also delivered in:Technology and Business, RuralViability, Health and Safety,Forestry, Alternative Enterprises,Hedgecutting, Livestock Haulage, Information Technologyand Pesticides.

During 2008 a total of 387students participated in the newadvanced Certificate in Agriculture(180 hr replacement) course.150 participants are completingprogrammes at local level, 137 are completing on-line courses inconjunction with the six agriculturalcolleges and a further 100commenced a new course inSeptember with the eCollege.

In addition there is acomprehensive programme ofAdvanced Certificate in Agriculture

courses for part-time farmersthroughout the country. Thesecourses are held largely at nightand weekends to facilitate part-timefarmers. There are a total of 16courses now running with a total of 503 participants. Of these, ninecourses commenced in 2008 with atotal of 306 participants. In additionto the courses above, an onlinecourse for poultry producers wasdeveloped and delivered in 2008.

38


GOAL 1

EDUCATION

• Following the decision of the Salesians to close Warrenstown Horticultural College the process of amalgamating the programmes, staff and students at Warrenstown with those at the National Botanic Gardens is now underway.

• The programme replacing 180 courses is fully developed and underway at six agricultural colleges (via e-learning) and at four local centres.

• Level 6 ACA discussion groups, in conjunction with benchmarking farmers were fully operational in 2008 with 24 discussion group meeting on 21 benchmarking farms.

• A new Dairy degree programme was developed jointly by Teagasc and UCD and will be available from September 2009.

• The process of migrating all Teagasc awards to the FETAC Common Awards System was initiated in 2008.

• Eight special needs students satisfactorily completed three weeks work placement in Denmark as part of a Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility Project.

• Due to increased number of agricultural students an additional 200 master farmers were recruited.

Professor Gerry Boyle presented certificates to students on the successful completion of aprogramme which recognises students with special needs. The ceremony was attended bythe students, their parents, members of the Teagasc Education & Training Directorate andalso by Bernard O’Farrell, Teagasc Special Needs Co-Ordinator and facilitator of theprogramme.

Farmer David Fennin from Castledermotparticipated in a computer training course.

MUSHROOMSDisease ControlThree mushroom disease researchprojects are in progress. Two areconcerned with understanding and controlling brown mushroomsymptoms that are correlated to the presence of dsRNA viruses.The first project is Teagasc fundedand is looking at the genetic basisof the symptom expression. Thiswork is being done in collaborationwith the University of Warwick, UK.

The second project is Stimulusfunded and seeks to identify the cultural factors that cause thebrown mushroom symptoms to beexpressed, as they are not alwayspresent in infected crops. The timeof infection and the number andtype of dsRNAs present in infectedmaterial appear to influence theseverity of symptom expression.A new technique has beendeveloped to conduct diagnostictests on compost samples,traditionally a difficult substrate for sensitive PCR techniques.

A third research project islooking at the epidemiology andcontrol of dry bubble disease, amajor pathogen of mushroomcultivation. Molecular diagnostictechniques based on quantitative

real time PCR techniques havebeen developed and applied to industry samples, in whichVerticillium has been successfullydetected. Aspects of the project are being done in collaborationwith the University of Wageningen,Netherlands.

VEGETABLE CROPSThree new outstanding greenbroccoli hybrids were identified for summer and autumn productionat Kinsealy. The three: Iron(Ironman), Steel and Naxos scored significantly better than the standard Marathon for wet rot,hollow stem, bracting and overallyield and quality.

An added advantage was theirdifferent maturities which allowed acontinuity of harvest over threeweeks at planting dates from Julythrough September. In extensiontrials in Birr, Steel proved robustenough for production inNovember suffering least from frostdamage.

Two new projects were startedon examining phytochemicals invegetable crops. The first of thesein collaboration with Ashtown isFIRM funded and will examine arange of vegetable crops produced

under differing growing regimes for phytochemical content.The second project entailsmanipulating brassica crops toenhance levels of phytochemicals.

A grower tour to a large scaleswede grower in eastern Scotlandwas held in December to examinethe feasibility of crop covering forpest control.

OTHER RESEARCH PROJECTSA major project is underway,funded by the EPA, to explore theclassification, horticultural utilisationand crop disease suppressiveproperties of green wastecomposts.

Research has started on a project to manipulate theproduction and storage conditionsof nematodes to enhance biocontrolof horticultural pests. Teagasc isparticipating in an INRA project toidentify turfgrass cultivars mostsuitable for winter sports use.

41

Horticultural Development UnitThe Horticultural Development Unit is an integrated Research and Advisory Unit. It has a staffcomplement of 29 people and a budget allocation of €2.2m.The staff are grouped in fourenterprise teams with additionalsupport from colleagues in theTeagasc and private HorticulturalColleges.

• Fruit Development Team• Nursery Stock Development Team• Mushroom Development Team• Vegetable Development Team

The total number of growers is 930with a farm gate output of €297m.Teagasc has advisory contact with80% of the growers.

FRUITThe soft fruit sector is expandingrapidly and is currently valued atapproximately €30m. There ispotential to double the value by2018. Soft fruit is a highly viablesector of Irish commercialhorticulture, leading to employmentand investment in both urban andrural areas. Growers who are nowinvolved in the sector are largescale commercial producers whoare investing heavily in theirenterprises.

Strawberry module plants arefast replacing traditional bare-roottransplants in Ireland as a source ofplant material for fruit production.This is particularly the case inprotected crop production. Thecommercial production of moduleplants is expected to increasesignificantly over the next few years replacing mainlyimported material.

Researchers investigated the factors that influence theproduction, fruit yield and quality of tray plants. Further factors to beinvestigated include the timing oftaking tip cuttings, and the effect of different nutrient and substratetreatments on flower initiation andsubsequent fruit yield.

Other areas of the fruit sectorare also expanding, most notablythe production of raspberries and a range of other fruitsproduced under protection for the fresh market.

NURSERY STOCKSterile shoot cultures of fivecommercial varieties of Hebe havebeen successfully initiated and a micropropropagation regime of growth regulators has beendeveloped for one variety.Stock plants of Hebe may carrylatent bacterial and fungal infectionsof pseudomonads, downy mildewand verticillium which result in poor quality plants with low vigour.We aim to produce clean stockplants which will be supplied to the nursery producers from themicropropagation work.

The successful micropropagationof Hebe varieties opens thepossibility to develop methodswhich will induce mutations and the production of new varieties with larger flowers and variegatedfoliage. First experiments to inducemutations have been completed for one variety. They indicate that mutation induction in Hebe isfeasible but the system requiresfurther development.

40


GOAL 1

Teagasc fruit specialist HarryO’Brien (second from right)on an advisory visit.

Technician Fiona Hutton conducting a disease assessment on potatoes at Teagasc Oak Park.

Forestry Development Unit The Teagasc Forestry DevelopmentUnit conducts an integrated forestryadvisory, research and trainingprogramme. The unit had a staffcomplement of 22 and a budget of €2.03 in 2008.

The Forestry Advisory andTraining Programme is carried out in collaboration with the Forest Service. The objectives of this advisory, training anddevelopmental programme are to improve the awareness and theknowledge among landowners offorestry and all aspects of forestmanagement. The programme also aims to initiate and supportforestry development projects.

The broadleaf researchprogramme aims to improve thequality of broadleaves through thedevelopment of improved planting material and improvedmanagement and silviculturalpractices. The soils and thinningand harvesting programmesdevelop methodologies to improvemanagement practices therebyenhancing the value of forests and creating scale efficiencies and providing access to markets,including timber and wood energy.

The forestry economics projectanalyzes the impact on afforestationof changes in other sectors,including agriculture. The mainresearch projects undertaken in2008 were:

Broadleaf Tree ImprovementResearch on two of our mainbroadleaf species, ash andsycamore, was carried out incollaboration with colleagues in theUK. Providing genetically improvedseeds of ash and sycamore is amajor objective. Selected superiortrees from Ireland and the UK werepropagated by grafting; they will be the parental trees which willproduce genetically improvedseeds when they are planted into dedicated seed orchards.In addition, research on vegetativepropagation of selected ash treeshas demonstrated that selectedtrees can be rejuvenated andpropagated by cuttings on a largescale.

Teagasc is a partner in theTreebreedex project which aims to consolidate all of the know-howand materials in existing forestrytrials in Europe so that programmesin member states can beprogressively integrated.The work in 2008 consisted ofseveral workshops concerned with breeding zone delineation,adaptation, seed transfer rules,plant variety rights and theproduction of species monographs.

Progress in 2008 included the identification of 60 new alder-plus-trees for inclusion in an aldertree-breeding programme and the establishment of two progeny trials of alder. In addition 20 newbirch trees have been identified.A polytunnel has been prepared for an indoor seed orchard whichwill be in place by spring ’09.

Advisory and Training ProgrammeThe Teagasc forestry advisory and training programme focused on the provision of an independentpromotional, advisory, training anddevelopment service to landownersconsidering forestry and existingfarm forest owners.

It is a joint programme with theForest Service of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.The programme aim was topromote the planting andmanagement of sustainable farmforests and to provide advice andtraining on the production ofprofitable timber and otherproducts from farm forests.This service was enhanced to cater for the needs of peopleconsidering forestry, those whowere in the process of establishinga farm forest, those with existingwoodlands and those whoseplantations are at the first thinningstage.

Forestry promotion aimed at those who may not have yet considered forestry was asignificant aspect of the 2008programme. This involved majorforestry sections at shows includingthe Ploughing Championships,Tullamore Show and Farmfest andBioenergy ‘08. Two national farmforestry demonstrations were heldand information meetings wereheld nationwide in Novemberwhich were attended by over 200people with an interest in plantingland.

Training was provided in a range of areas with coursesprovided on seed collection,native woodland establishment,farm forest establishment, forestmanagement, broadleaf shapingand wood energy. Additionally1,170 REPS participants weretrained on the benefits of farmforestry. Some of the courses wereprovided through or in associationwith other organisations includingthe Sustainable Forestry Trainingand Education Group, The OrganicCentre – Rossinver, Skillsnet andCounty Councils. Two pilot FEPScourses, to fulfil the requirements ofthe FEPS scheme, were run inDecember 2008.

42

After graduating in Forestry fromUCD in 1991, Liam (pictured abovewearing red helmet) initially workedin the private forestry sector.

Subsequently, he joined Teagascas a Farm Forestry Adviser in 2001.Currently based at the Mullingaroffice Liam is a Forest DevelopmentOfficer, and has responsibility foradvice, promotion and training onall aspects of forestry in the midlandcounties of Westmeath, Longford,Laois, Offaly and Kildare.

Grey squirrels are a major threat tobroadleaf forests. In 2003, Liamresearched control measures tocombat grey squirrel damage tobroadleaf forests which wasidentified by woodland owners as amajor problem at the time andthese techniques are presently stillbeing utilised. In 2005, Liam wasappointed as the Teagascrepresentative to the AdvisoryCommittee of the Forest Servicefunded project “Securing Ireland’sBroadleaf Forests and ConservationNative Red Squirrels throughIntegrated Management of GreySquirrel”.

In 2005, he developed the annualforestry village concept for theTullamore show, which allows theforest industry to exhibit theirproducts and services in adedicated forestry setting at thecountry’s Premier Agricultural Show.

Since 2007, Liam has beenNational Events Coordinator withinthe Teagasc Forestry DevelopmentUnit.

LIAM KELLYFarm Forestry AdviserMullingar, Co.Westmeath

43

Mr. Tony Killeen, T.D. and Minister of State at theDepartment of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, withspecial responsibility for Forestry, Fisheries and theMarine with Dr. Nuala Ní Fhlaithbherataigh, head ofthe forestry development unit, at the 2008Ploughing Championships.

Pig Production Development UnitThe Irish pig industry is a moderncapital-intensive, highly-efficientindustry which has been a worldleader in terms of one of theindicators of technical efficiency,i.e. the number of pigs producedper sow per year and producestop-class pork and pork products.

Most pig production is carriedout in some 450 commercial unitsand the proportion of pigmeatoutput concentrated in large-scaleunits is greater in Ireland than inother EU countries. Large unit size,a high degree of specialisation andhighly skilled labour, have allcontributed to make the Irish pigindustry efficient and internationallycompetitive.

The objectives of theprogramme of the Pig ProductionDevelopment Unit are to reduce the unit-cost of production andimprove the quality of pigmeat,while reducing environmentalimpact and improving animalwelfare. RESEARCH PROGRAMME

The Pig Research Programmecovers a wide range of topicsrelated to nutrition andmanagement and meat quality witha continued emphasis on animalwelfare, food safety and minimisingenvironmental impact. Walsh Fellowsin the pig programme are registeredwith University College Dublin,Queens University Belfast,University of London (Royal VetCollege) and Waterford IT.

Nutrition and ManagementA study on feeding andmanagement of sows involvedmonitoring of breeding giltsentering the Moorepark herd and alarge commercial herd and relatingtheir performance to bodycondition (fatness) at first mating.

A study of reduced crudeprotein levels and supplementationof diets with crystalline amino acidscontinued. The objective is toreduce the amounts of nitrogenexcreted in manure.

An examination of the effect of nutrition on bone strength ofbreeding sows and growing pigscontinued under the ResearchStimulus Fund of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Health and Welfare Increasing slaughter weights meanthat more male pigs are reaching or have reached puberty atslaughter and are potentially moreaggressive. A joint programme withQueens University is examining the behaviour of these heavy pigsincluding their reaction to selling off the heaviest pigs in a group.

The pig continued to be used asa model for human nutrition studiescarried out by the Moorepark FoodResearch Centre.

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GOAL 1

45

Professor Paul Ross, Teagasc Moorepark FoodResearch Centre,(right) receiving the

Enterprise Ireland award for Lifescience andFood Commercialisation from Dr. Joe Healy.

Meat Quality The study of pregnancy feeding and its effect on muscledevelopment in the pre- and post-natal pig continued. The responsesobserved in the Moorepark studieshave been less than in otherpublished work. A Framework 7 project on identification ofbiomarkers for safety assessment of novel feeds commenced.

Environmental ManagementTwo projects on environmentalmanagement are being supportedby the DAFF Research StimulusFund. The first, now in its third yearis examining manure compositionand manure separation into solidand liquid fractions. The secondproject is concerned withgeneration of energy from pigmanure including anaerobicdigestion and combustion ofseparated solid fraction.

Advisory and Training ProgrammeResponding to high feed prices,low pig prices and negativemargins drove the AdvisoryProgramme in 2008. Farm visits to contracted clients with theprovision of a business andtechnology service continued to be the main advisory activity.The PIGSYS data processingsystem of performance monitoringis the basis of most businessdecisions and Pig DevelopmentOfficers continued to encourageproducers to avail of the service.A suite of financial planningspreadsheets prepared forAdvisory Officers were widely usedby producers and lenders.

Membership of the InterPiggroup which is involved ininternational benchmarking ofproduction efficiency andproduction costs in EU and

American countries is providingvaluable information for assessingthe international competitiveness ofthe Irish pig industry. The Interpigreports highlight areas of weaknessin the sector which need to receiveattention in the research, advisoryand training programmes. It is alsoallowing Teagasc staff to build upworking relationships with contactsin similar roles in participatingcountries.

RESEARCH

NUTRIENT EFFICIENCYResearch is being conducted toinvestigate the potential of thetrailing shoe application system to reduce ammonia emissions andincrease the nitrogen fertiliserreplacement value of cattle slurryapplications to grassland under Irish conditions. A decision supportsystem for the prediction, based onweather forecasts, of conditions thatoptimise both environmental safetyand nutrient recovery of organic andmineral fertilisers is also underway.

Teagasc advice for major andmicro nutrient applications tograssland, tillage, vegetable and fruitcrops was revised and published in2008. This revised nutrient advicehas also been incorporated into thedecision support tool, created inJohnstown Castle, which is used byadvisers for nutrient managementplanning for cross-compliance withthe Nitrates Directive.

Soil Quality and Soil BiologyDuring 2008 new programmesbegan to address the issues relatingto soils highlighted in the debateover the forthcoming EU soilsframework directive and the threatsto soil quality. For any nationaldecision making a thoroughknowledge of the location andproperties of our different soils isrequired. The Irish Soils InformationSystem (ISIS), funded by the EPAand Teagasc and launched in 2008will provide that basic information.

The importance of understandingthe biology behind keyenvironmental process such asdenitrification, nitrification,phosphorus mobilisation andbiodiversity was also recognised bythe start of a Science FoundationIreland funded Stoke’s Professorshipat Johnstown Castle.

4746

Support sustainable farming and the environment

Pictured at the Teagasc and IrBEA BioenergyConference 2008 in Tullamore, were Professor

Gerry Boyle, Teagasc Director; Mary Wallace,T.D.and Minister of State at the Department of

Agriculture, Fisheries and Food; Vicky Heslop,President, IrBEA and Barry Caslin,

Bioenergy Specialist, Teagasc.

During 2008, the catchments werechosen using a GeographicalInformation System multi-criteriadecision analysis approach andincluding, for example, catchmentdata on stocking density,percentage forage cover, soil type and geology – factors that can influence nutrient use and soil accumulation potential and the potential for nutrient transfer to water bodies. To provide abiophysical and socio-economicevaluation of the ActionProgramme, recruitment hasincluded a scientific team withbackgrounds in soil science,hydrochemistry, hydrogeology and agricultural economics.

Agricultural EcologyAn EU-wide survey of agri-environment schemes found astrong need for improved definitionof policy aims and specificobjectives, as well as improvedselection of the indicators tomeasure progress toward the policyaims. The survey also found thatmany schemes simultaneously aimto achieve different environmentalobjectives for natural resources,biodiversity and landscape.A methodology was developed tobetter address the environmentalassessment of schemes withmultiple environmental objectives.In a feasibility study, themethodology was successfullyapplied in Ireland to a smallnumber of REPS and non-REPSfarms.

The REPS farms scored higherthan the comparable non-REPSfarms but the limited sample size of10 farms per treatment was notrepresentative of the national-scaleimplementation of REPS. Acomparison of the change inenvironmental performance overtime (before and after joining REPS)would be one of the best ways tomeasure the environmentaleffectiveness of the scheme.

BiodiversityThe type of establishment andmanagement of field margins inintensively-managed grasslandshas large effects on farmlandwildlife (plant and arthropoddiversity). Arthropod diversity washighest on field margins with higherplant diversity, and plant diversitywas highest on field margins thatwere sown with a wildflower mix.In field margins that originallyconsisted of Lolium-dominatedvegetation, there was littleimprovement in plant diversity afterfive years, even after exclusion offertiliser inputs. A new project wasinitiated to assess the biodiversityoptions in REPS and conduct areview to identify a range ofbiodiversity actions that canimprove farmland wildlife.

49

Water QualityFurther research investigating thebenefit of over-winter green cover(mustard cover crop or naturalregeneration) highlighted theimportance of maintaining greencover to reduce nitrate leaching togroundwater. Natural regenerationunder reduced tillage managementwas found to be as good atreducing nitrate leaching as aplanted mustard cover crop andboth reduced nitrate leachingsignificantly.

Research commenced in 2008 will quantify the importance of denitrification (the reduction of nitrate to nitrous oxide (N2O)‚ and di-nitrogen gases) in sub-soil and groundwater systems under arange of hydrogeological settings.The data generated will be used to quantify the potential naturalremediation that occurs along thehydrological transport pathwaysfrom farms to river bodies.

Further research on ex-situremediation and control of dirtywater using reactive materials suchas ochre, woodchip and a biofilmtechnology aims to decrease dirtywater storage volumes and savefarmers money by enabling waterrecycling on Irish farm yards.

Improving nitrogen (N) useefficiency in agricultural systems is important as it reduces fertilisernitrogen requirements and reducesenvironmental losses of N andhelps achieve the objectives ofmany environmental directives (e.g. Nitrates and Water FrameworkDirectives). A new projectcommenced in 2008 which will evaluate the potential role of nitrification and urease inhibitorsto improve the efficiency of slurry-N and urea-N utilisation bygrassland in Ireland.

Results from previous researchconducted jointly betweenJohnstown Castle and LincolnUniversity has indicated that inIreland the nitrification inhibitorDCD has the potential to reducenitrate leaching by up to 25% andnitrous oxide emissions by up to45%. The effect of soil type, soiltemperature and moisture on theefficacy of DCD are currently beinginvestigated.

Agricultural Catchments ProgrammeAn evaluation of the GoodAgricultural Practice guidelines (SI 378), designed to implement the Nitrates Directive ActionProgramme in Ireland, is beingundertaken by Teagasc in theAgricultural CatchmentsProgramme. The Department ofAgriculture, Fisheries and Food(DAFF) has funded the project to evaluate changes in nutrient(nitrogen and phosphorus) sources,transfers in hydrological pathwaysand rivers in eight small catchments(5-12km2) as the guidelines areimplemented. These catchmentareas represent a range ofagricultural enterprises, intensitiesand soil types on both grasslandand arable land.

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GOAL 2Demonstration of cattle slurry application

systems, Teagasc, Johnstown Castle, Wexford.

Below: Teagasc specialist Andy Boland at thesame event.

Cork dairy farmer Denis Carroll with Teagasc researcher Denis Minogue.

New research will now focus on the synergies and antagonisms ofammonia abatement strategies andgreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.In particular, the effect of slurryapplication on soil carbon andnitrogen processes will beinvestigated.

Greenhouse GasesNitrous oxide (N2O) emissionscomprise 28% of total agriculturalGHG emissions and these arisefrom a) animal excretion and b)application of mineral fertilisers.A range of DAFF-funded research is currently underway in order todraw up ‘best-practice’ mitigationstrategies. These include assessingthe effects on emissions andleaching of dietary N manipulationvia alterations in the crude proteincontent and synthetic amino acidsupplementation. Also, research intothe use of nitrification and ureaseinhibitors to reduce emissions onpasture and tillage systems iscurrently underway with nitrificationinhibitors yielding 40% reductionsin emissions from pasture systemson heavy soils.

The role of clover in (N2O)mitigation is also currently beingassessed. This research willquantify the emission factorassociated with atmospheric Nfixation and will also perform a fulllife-cycle analysis for clover-baseddairy systems.

Strategies to reduce GHGemissions from tillage systems are also being investigated. Inparticular management options to minimise soil organic carbonlosses, including winter cropping,cover crops, minimum tillage andresidue incorporation are beingassessed. Results to date indicatethat the reduction in winter fallow isthe most important factor in termsof arable GHG balance.

The effect of land-use change onemissions from pasture to biomasscrops is also being assessed in lightof the national co-firing targets forelectricity production.

Winter Cover Crops to Reduce Nitrate LeachingInvestigations at Oak Park into the effect of over-winter covers on land destined for spring barleyindicated that while over-wintercovers could substantially reducethe amount of nitrate leachedduring the winter period, there was generally no beneficial effect of incorporating a cover crop on the yield of the succeeding barleycrop. This indicates that use ofsown cover crops would be a neteconomic cost to Irish springbarley production systems.

Efficient and Reliable Utilisation of Nutrients in Animal ManuresResearch on the use of pig slurry as a nutrient source for cereal cropscontinued in 2008. Trials indicatedthat the use of slurry could reducethe fertiliser nitrogen requirementof spring barley, therebysignificantly reducing fertilisercosts. The use of slurry by tillagefarmers would also provide a muchneeded outlet for pig farmers for at least a portion of their slurryproduction.

Home HeatingPellets for home-heating areprimarily produced from sawdust.Limited supplies of sawdustindicate that there is scope to use agricultural feedstocks fora national pelleting industry.The research pelleting facility at Oak Park has successfullyproduced pellets from willow,miscanthus, rape straw, and cereal straw.

Cereal straw is more difficult to pellet, while rape and cerealstraw produce higher ash levelsthan willow or miscanthus.Mixing of feedstocks can reducethe ash level produced on burning.This programme will lessendependence on limited sawdustresources and provide a potentialincome stream for farmers.

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Greenhouse & Transboundary GasesIreland is subject to two majorpieces of global emissionslegislation: The GothenburgProtocol (and subsequent NationalEmissions Ceilings Directive) which seeks to limit transboundarypollutants, (such as NOx andammonia) and the Kyoto Protocolwhich limits greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As agriculturecomprises 98% of ammonia and26.5% of national GHG emissions,a large proportion of JohnstownCastle research is now focused on providing sustainable solutionsto farmers in the context ofmaintaining production potential.

Current research is particularlyfocussed on abatement of ammoniaemissions from landspreading andhousing mitigation of nitrous oxideemissions via either interventionstrategies or increased nutrientefficiency offsetting of emissions via land management change or land-use change.

AmmoniaThe effects of altered timing andapplication technique for slurry(splash-plate and trailing shoe) havebeen investigated. By adopting thetrailing shoe technique, ammoniaemissions have been reduced byan average of 28%. However, bysynchronising spreading withperiods of cool overcast conditions,emissions from splashplateapplication have also beenobserved to decrease by over 50%.

There is currently littleinformation world-wide onammonia emissions from animalhousing. Direct measurementtechniques on association Gaussiandispersion modelling techniqueshave been developed and utilisedto quantify ammonia emissions fromboth slatted sheds and, for the firsttime, out-wintering pads. Emissionswere observed to be highlydependent on windspeed withlower emissions per head from the out-wintering pads.

The Head of the Food SafetyDepartment at Ashtown FoodResearch Centre, Teagasc, Dublin isDr. Geraldine Duffy. The food safetyprogramme led by Dr. Duffy conductsresearch to provide the scientificbasis for food safety assurance by theIrish food industry, concentrating onmicrobiological and chemicalcontaminants in Irish food

Geraldine’s holds a B.Sc. degreefrom University College Dublin and aPhD from the University of Ulster. Shehas carried out international postdoctoral fellowships at the Universityof Nottingham and at the United StatesDepartment of Agriculture (USDA)Research Centre in Philadelphia.

Geraldine joined the research staffat Teagasc, Ashtown Food ResearchCentre in 1996 and has been Head of the Food Safety Department since 2005. Her research focuses on understanding the transmission,behaviour and virulence of microbialpathogens in the food chain.

This research is exploited to developfood safety management systemsincluding quantitative risk assessmentmodels and novel interventions forcontrol of known and emergent foodborne pathogens.

She has published widely in the field of microbial food safety withover 70 peer reviewed publicationsincluding books and book chapters,of which over 40 are on the highlyvirulent E. coli O157. Geraldinecurrently co-ordinates a multi-nationalEU Framework Project on beef safetyand quality “Prosafebeef” and hosteda large international congress underthe auspices of this project at theAshtown Food Research Centre inMarch 2009. She is a member of the microbiological committee of theFood Safety Authority of Ireland andhas served as a food safety expert forthe World Health Organisation (WHO)and the European Food SafetyAuthority (EFSA).

DR. GERALDINE DUFFYHead of Food Safety DepartmentFood Research Centre, Ashtown, Dublin.

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GOAL 2

Pictured at the Teagasc and IrBEA BioenergyConference in Tullamore were Michael Keane,

Philip Farrelly & Partners; Dr. John Carroll,Dr. John Finnan, Teagasc, Oak Park.

Countryside Management and BiodiversityTeagasc supported the EU target ofhalting biodiversity loss by 2010 inits broadly based countrysidemanagement programme in 2008.The promotional work in support ofthe introduction of compulsorybiodiversity options in REPS 4demonstrates this in a practical way.36 practical hedgerow planting andrejuvenation demonstrations wereheld nationally, covering everycounty.

These have been extremelypopular and were well attendedparticularly by REPS farmers. Morethan 5,000 farmers took part in2008. The campaign will continuewith further demonstrations in 2009.Teagasc has a major input aspartner in the BurrenLIFE Project.2008 was the fourth year of thismajor five-year environmentalresearch and advisory projectdesigned to map out alternativesocio-economic models forsustainable farming in the Burren.

The highlight of the 2008programme was the hosting of theBurren International Conference onConservation Farming with Teagascsupport.

Draft Environment ProgrammeReport for 2008Changes in the price of fertilisers in2008 drew attention to the usageand the management of othervaluable nutrient sources such asslurry on farms. These changesalso refocused attention on thebenefits of clover as a source ofnitrogen. These issues were themajor focus of the environmentaladvisory unit exhibits at Farmfestthe premier Teagasc agriculturalevent at Athenry on 20th June.The field scale exhibitsdemonstrated the benefits of anumber of strategies to reduce the quantities of artificial fertiliserneeded on farms including springapplication of slurry andintroducing white clover into swards.

The trend in fertiliser use is an important indicator of futurepressures on water quality. Usagefigures have been falling for sometime. This has saved money andcontributed tangible benefits for theenvironment. Reducing chemical Nfertiliser is also an important factorin reducing nitrous oxide, anextremely powerful greenhouse gas emitted from soils.The dissemination of information on the fertiliser planning andrecording were given a highpriority at Teagasc eventsthroughout 2008.

Overall, the environmentprogramme supported thedevelopment of sustainable farmingand the transfer of environmentaltechnology. This involved a major‘public good’ programme providingpractical information on 'goodagricultural practice' and raisingenvironmental awareness amongfarmers generally.

FWMSTeagasc supported 14,400 FWMS(Farm Waste Management Scheme)applicants to finalise the schemepaperwork requirements ahead ofthe end of 2008 deadline. Theuptake of the scheme exceeded allexpectations with the result that thegreat majority of applicants haveprovided top class farmyardfacilities for their livestock. Thisenables greater productionefficiency, and facilitates betterworking conditions for farmers.

Teagasc support for the FWMSwas important work in the contextof the requirements of the Nitratesand Water Framework Directives.Scheme applicants were providedwith detailed advice on farmyard layout, building design, manuremanagement and planning.The result will be better overallcompliance with environmentalregulations.

Regulatory ComplianceA major programme objective was to raise farmer awareness inrelation to the new environmentalrequirements associated with crosscompliance. Monies paid to farmersunder the Single Payment Schemeare conditional on meeting theserequirements.

They include the 18 statutorymanagement requirements (SMRs)and good agricultural andenvironmental conditions (GAEC).Teagasc, in conjunction with theDepartment initiated a series ofeight public awareness events onTeagasc farms nationwide, in thelatter part of 2008.

A further series of at least 10such events are planned for 2009.The events were attended by more than 2,000 farmers. Thedissemination of information on thefertiliser planning and recordingaspect of the Nitrates Regulationswas given a high priority at theevents.

52

Results from the 2007 National FarmSurvey showed that average FamilyFarm Income increased from€16,680 per farm in 2006 to€19,687 in 2007 an increase of 18percent. This followed a decline of26% in 2006. However the incomeon full-time farms increased by 27percent in 2007 to €43,988. As inprevious years dairying generatedthe highest returns with an averageincome of €51,017 per farmcompared to €10,682 and €7,702per farm on sheep and beef rearingfarms respectively.

Changes in FFI ranged fromminus 10% on the Mainly SheepSystem to plus 42% on the MainlyTillage farms and by plus 41% onSpecialist Dairying farms. Therewas a decline of 7% and 5% in FFIrespectively on the Cattle Rearingand Cattle Other Systems.Nationally average direct paymentsincreased by 1% from €16,346 perfarm in 2006 to €16,524 in 2007.

Average direct paymentsremained stable across all systems offarming from 2006 to 2007. In 2007direct payment and subsidiescontributed 31% of Gross FarmOutput and 84% of FFI. The declinein the contribution of directpayments to farm output andincome in 2007, compared toprevious years, was due mainly to

the increase in market output inboth the dairy and tillage sectorsresulting from higher farm gateprices for milk and cereals.

Net new investment amountedto €9,937 per farm in 2007 – anincrease of 66% on 2006 andaccounted for 50% of FFI. This largeincrease in on-farm investment in2007 had been forecasted in late2006, when a survey on the NFSsample showed an 88% increase in planned investment for 2007.

Obviously not all the plannedinvestment was undertaken but theincrease of 66% in actualinvestment in 2007 resulted infarmers investing on average 50%of their FFI. Average investment onspecialist dairy farms increasedfrom €11,796 per farm in 2006 to€23,524 in 2007 i.e. by 100%resulting mainly from investment tocomply with environmentalregulations and slurry control andstorage. Investment on tillage farmsincreased from €7,747 in 2006 to€18,735 in 2007, an increase of 142%.

The incidence of off-farmemployment was identical to 2006at 58 percent on all farms andoverall on 80 percent of farms, thefarmer and/or spouse had someother source of income resulting inonly 20 percent of farms dependanton farming solely for their livelihood.

NATIONAL FARM SURVEY

Drs. Anne Kinsella, Liam Connolly and Cathal O’Donoghue of the Rural Economy ResearchCentre at the launch of the National Farm Survey 2007.

53

Joined Teagasc: In March 2008 as acontract Research Officer in MolecularBiology and in January 2009 as PostDoc in the Animal Bioscience Centrebased at Mellow Campus, Athenry,Co. Galway.

Current role: The establishment ofa DNA bank resource for Irish dairyand beef cattle with accompanyingdetailed phenotypic data. Thisresource is being used to exploitcurrent developments in thebiosciences. It is underpinning thegenomic selection programme forDairy A.I. sires and for Beef A.I. siresin early 2010.

This puts Ireland at the forefront of the use of genomic selectiontechnology for identification of thegenetic merit of young bulls enteringA.I. Other ongoing projects aim toidentify genomic markers for traits ofinterest.

The DNA bank resource is alreadybeing used to discover novel singlenucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)associated with traits of economicimportance in Irish cattle breeds. Thiswill improve the accuracy of theselection process and increase therate of genetic progress, facilitatingthe identification of animals best

suited to Irish production systems.The expansion of this DNA bank to

larger numbers of samples and theinclusion of sheep will provide aninvaluable national resource for manyfuture projects which intend to identifygenomic markers for traits ofcommercial importance in cattle andsheep. This will contribute significantlyto the competitiveness of the Irishagricultural sector.

DR. DAWN HOWARDResearch OfficerAthenry, Co. Galway

UnderstandingProductivity Growth in Irish Agriculture (1996-2006)Recent reforms of the CommonAgricultural Policy and continuousmoves toward further tradeliberalisation have meant that thecompetitiveness of agriculturalmarkets has been at the forefront of debate in recent times. Thismotivation provided the rationalefor researchers in the RuralEconomy Research Centre (RERC)Teagasc along with colleagues inthe Department of Economics inTCD to examine the productivityperformance of Irish agriculture.

This research employed aneconomic tool called StochasticFrontier Analysis (SFA) for theconstruction of Total FactorProductivity (TFP) indices for eachof the main farming types inIreland, using National Farm Surveydata from 1996 to 2006. An index of TFP measures productivitygrowth taking into account therelationship between the change inoutput and the change in the use ofall inputs. This measure ofproductivity growth differs fromtraditional productivity indicatorswhich are common in the literaturesuch as yield indicators (milk yieldsper cow or crop yields per hectare)which are known as partialproductivity indicators. Theseindicators compare output to asingle input such as land, labour oranimal numbers.

An index of TFP decomposesannual TFP change into technicalchange, technical efficiency changeand scale efficiency change. Whilethe analysis is primarily concernedwith changes in TFP and itscomponents over time, acomplimentary issue was alsoexplored which examined thefactors that influence technicalefficiency levels on Irish farms.

The findings of this researchpublished in 2008 have shown thatproductivity growth was highest inthe Cattle Rearing sector followedby the Dairy, Cattle Finishing,Sheep and Cereals sectors.Average annual TFP growth rateswere 2 per cent, 1.4 per cent, 0.9per cent, 0.4 per cent and -0.2 percent respectively.

The research has also shown thatthat efficiency levels are, in general,positively correlated with extensionuse (although only significantly inthe Dairy sector), soil quality, theoverall size of the farm, the level of intensification (livestock systems)and the level of specialisation.The use of artificial inseminationwas also positively correlated withefficiency in the Dairy sector.

The coefficient for off-farmemployment was not significant inany sector and therefore impliesthat farms with an off-farm job areno less efficient than farms without.

The research also highlighted theimportance of the scale of operations.Increasing returns to scale werepresent in all but the Cattle Finishingand Sheep sectors. The resultshighlight that larger farms are moreefficient. This implies that increasingscale would likely lead to increasesin technical efficiency levels.

Given the importance ofeconomies of scale found in theresearch, this finding presents aserious challenge for policy makersand for those involved in planningthe future of Irish agriculture, whichat present is characterised byrelatively small scale operations(internationally). This finding has recently been used by theresearchers in RERC to highlightthe economic rationale for farmpartnerships in the context ofincreasing scale of operations in anincreasingly competitive internationalmarket. This research was funded bythe DAFF Research Stimulus Fund.

54

Drs. Trevor Donnellan and Kevin Hanrahan ofthe Rural Economy Research Centre (RERC).

55

Food Industry Profile in Ireland

Gross Output - €20bn; 9% GDP750 + companies50,000 directly employed€8.6bn in exports 2007

Source; Dept. of AgricultureFisheries and Food

Speciality Food320+ companies3,000 directly employedWorth €500m

Opportunities in Food. New lifestyles. Changing Households. Convenience. Speciality. Organic. Farmers’ Markets

In 2008 six food/rural tourismadvisers were recruited and workfrom locations throughout thecountry. Direct sales are veryimportant for many producers anda Teagasc direct selling courseproved popular. This course hasbeen run at five locations with overone hundred attendees.

A food business course was runat two locations with an averageattendance of 15. 2008 also saw the recruitment of two foodtechnologists who have been to the

fore in formulating legislation fortheir respective sectors, a HACCPplan for the farmhouse cheeseindustry, for example.

During the year food adviserswere involved in mentoringsessions with food producers inareas as diverse as sea saltdevelopment, farmhouse crisps,confectionery, baby food, yoghurt,ice cream, liquid milk and cheese.

5756

Encourage diversification of the Rural economyand Enhance the Quality of Life in Rural areas

Left: Mairead and David Tiernan, whoproduce cheese on their farm near

Dunleer, Co. Louth.

Further highlights included a newbrochure entitled ‘Horse Ownership– A General Guide for the FirstTime Horse/Pony Owner’ almost2,000 brochures requested.

A total of 64 farm visits weremade to horse owners andbreeders throughout the country.

Organic Farming Advice The Government Action Planlaunched in March 2008 lists 64objectives, of which Teagascassumes the lead role in 35. Thedraft plan was collated by Teagascworking with DAFF and Bord Bia.The Teagasc Organic Business Planwas presented to the Minister forFood Trevor Sargent on 19 March2008.

Minister Sargent wrote to allherd-owners in the country in July &August 2008 encouraging farmersto consider organic as an option.The advisory team contact detailswere included in the letter, thisresulted in us fielding in excess of1,600 phone calls over a four or fiveweek period.

OrganicDemonstration Farm NetworkThe Organic Demonstration FarmProgramme ran from June to midSeptember, a change from previousyears to coincide with NationalOrganic Week. Over 2,800 peopleattended 20 events nationwideacross all enterprises. Each eventwas coordinated by two of theadvisory team.

Farm Visits & SignificantConsultations In total the team visited 316 farmsnationwide. Most of the farm visitswere carried out in conjunction withlocal advisers and REPS planners.

Education EventsFour 25 hour FETAC accreditedcourses “Introduction to OrganicFarming” were held at Ballinasloe,Ennis, Macroom & Newcastlewestwhich were attended by an averageof 17. Each course was run over fourevenings and two half day farm visits.

The four full time organicadvisers are currently receivingtraining as tutors for the Teagasc eCollege.

Options ProgrammeTeagasc advisers provided adetailed planning service for farmfamilies under the Optionsprogramme during 2008. Nearly2,000 farm families were assisted inevaluating the strengths andweaknesses of their farmingbusiness and in exploring newopportunities to increase farmhousehold income throughdiversification or from off-farmemployment. This service helpedproducers to establish the facts interms of farm income, householdincome, living expenses, futureincome need and resulted in 7,619recommended actions for farmfamilies.

National Technical Organic ConferenceThe Technical Conference was heldin Tullamore on 2 December 2008.150 delegates heard presentationsfrom 13 speakers. A conferenceproceedings was published anddistributed on the day.

59

Rural TourismRural tourism is part of an industrywhich was worth €6.5bn in 2007.Development in rural tourism will be driven by (1) a need toovercome the serious imbalancewhich has occurred in tourism inIreland over the past number ofyears, where Dublin receives overhalf (5.7m) of all the visitors toIreland and only 1.5m go to theNorth West and (2) generoussupports for rural tourism in therecently announced LEADERinitiative.

Already there are over 10,000small businesses in rural tourism inIreland to include farmhouses, town& country homes, self cateringhouses, apartments, lodges andforest homes, caravan and campingsites, hostels, stately homes, healthfarms; angling facilities, cycling andwalking and rambling holidays,water sports, farm restaurants andtea shops, craft centers, open farms,interpretive centres and farmmuseums and cultural activities.The potential to provide a ruralholiday experience is relativelyuntapped.

As well as providing training, forexample a 25 hr course on ruraltourism was delivered to 16participants in Ballyvourney inpartnership with LEADER, allparticipants were offered theopportunity to attend a one to onementoring session to develop theirideas for a LEADER application andas a submission for FETAC.

Specialist Teagasc tourismadvisers have worked withorganisations including the IrishRural Tourism Federation (IRTF),Rural Resource DevelopmentShannon evaluation committee,Clare Culture & Tourism sub-committee, Failte Ireland TourismNetworks, Limerick IT to promoterural tourism.

Equine AdviceEvents where the advisory teampresented Teagasc equine activitiesincluded the Irish ThoroughbredBreeders’ Association InternationalTrade Fair and Symposium whichtook place in Goffs Sales Complexin Kill, Co. Kildare in January 2008which was attended by more than2,300 visitors and the RDSInternational Dublin Horse Show.

Educational ActivitiesThroughout the year theeducational requirements of theindustry were served through anumber of courses. Horse SkillsCourses (including In-HandShowing, Lungeing and LooseSchooling skills) were delivered inKillarney, Portlaoise, Dungarvan andPiltown.

Horse Breeders SkillnetApproximately 10-12 participantswere on each course. Thesecourses were of 10 day durationspread over 10 weeks.

A number of Horse Breedingand Management Courses wereheld around the country includingin Thurles, Enniscorthy, Dungarvan,Newcastlewest and Ballyhaise.Approximately 25-30 people tookpart in each course which were offour-day duration over four weeks.

Two very well supporteddemonstration nights were held(attendance 300 at each approx) in conjunction with the ArmyEquitation School and otherindustry professionals and were run with the theme ‘From Farm ToMarket’. The idea behind thedemonstrations was to encapsulatethe requirements of the marketcurrently and the deficits betweenthe Farm Gate and the Market.

58

Equine husbandry students at Teagasc, Kildalton.

929

888

657

536

504

453

428

361

318

301

286

265

214

182

171

164

157

127

107

95

82

79

75

75

41

31

27

25

16

11

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000

Number of plans with action included

Options Plans 01/01/08 to 28/11/08Recommended actions (total 7619)

improve efficiency

join REPS

options to reduce workload

change enterprise / system of production

options to expand

succession planning

management of direct payments

on farm investment schemees

family living expenses

FRS /IAS

off-farm job

farm safety

money management

options to reduce production

taxation

pensions

sell / rent / lease land

state entitlements

forestry

reduce / reorganise debt

sale of sites

change / improve financial management

small business

organic farming

horses

change off-farm job

no change

rural tourism

other off-farm measures

poultry

RESEARCH

WALSH FELLOWSHIPSThe Walsh Fellowship Schemecontinues to provide grants topostgraduate students to work onprojects relevant to the TeagascResearch Programme, whilestudying for a higher degree.

In 2008 a total of 112 newapplications were received fromuniversity academics with 41approved using Teagasc funding and26 approved with an external sourceof funding. Currently there is a totalof 208 Fellowships ongoing withinthe scheme with nine MSc projectsupgraded to PhD level giving a total of 163 PhD fellowships.

2008 saw the arrival of the firstfour-year structured PhD’s with 13 of the new Walsh Fellowshipstudents enrolled on this programmeof study with UCD. A proposal wasformalised for the introduction ofIndustrial PhD’s under the WalshFellowship scheme with the firstentrants expected to be recruited in late 2009.

The 2008 Walsh FellowshipSeminar (13 oral presentations and 22 posters) was held duringScience Week 2008. Dr. DonThornhill, Chairman of the NationalCompetitiveness Council attended

as a guest speaker. The winner Mr. Galatios Moschonas fromAshtown Food Research Centreimpressed the audience and judgesalike with his presentation on ‘BlownPack Spoilage: Discovery, Innovationand Technology Transfer’.

Post DoctoratesNew scheme terms and conditionswere drafted and approved andinterviews are underway for anumber of approved post Doctoralposts.

6160

Enhance organisational capabilityand deliver value for money

Dr. Don Thornhill, Chairman of the National Competitiveness Council was guest speaker atthe Teagasc Walsh Fellowship Seminar in the RDS.

A scheme for recruitment of aGraduate Library Trainee, modelledon similar schemes in the academiclibraries, was put in place and thetrainee started work towards yearend.

Science WritingThe Science Writing Functionfocused on the following areas in 2008

PublicationsFour issues of Teagasc’s researchand innovation magazine TResearchwere produced, including a special issue to commemorate theAn Foras Talúntais 50th anniversarycelebrations. Two issues of a newlook Irish Journal of Agriculturaland Food Research were published.

Science WeekScience Week is coordinated by Forfás’ Discover Science &Engineering (DSE) programme,which aims to increase interest in science, technology, innovationand engineering among students,teachers and members of thepublic. Teagasc held a series ofevents for students at second level(Ashtown, Athenry, Grange andMoorepark), third level (Oak Park),fourth level (Walsh FellowshipsAnnual Seminar); and the general

public (RDS speaker series – whereProfessor Gerry Boyle, DirectorTeagasc, delivered a talk on ‘TheTwin Global Insecurities: Food andEnergy’).

TelevisionTeagasc researchers featured in ‘Crops of the Future’ in thesecond series of ‘The Investigators’television show on RTÉ (262,000viewers). Eimear Gallagher andNigel Brunton (Ashtown FoodResearch Centre) contributed in the area of “Nutraceuticals”, DenisGriffin and Dan Milbourne (OakPark Crops Research Centre)

contributed on the potato breedingprogramme and Matthew McCabe(Grange) contributed on ‘pharming’.

RMISA portfolio of all research projectswas placed on the Teagasc website. The software redevelopmentplan is on hold pendingorganisational restructuringdecisions.

63

Intellectual PropertyA corporate Intellectual Property(IP) function is in place in Teagascsince 2006 to provide support to researchers on all IP issues.A significant increase in funding for Teagasc researchers particularlyfrom Science Foundation Ireland(SFI) and Enterprise Ireland (EI)has lead to a need for high level IP agreements with academic andindustry partners and places greateremphasis on commercialisation ofsuch research outputs.

As awareness and buy-in from researchers and PrincipalInvestigator is critical, training of researchers continued in the form of general and project specific presentations and workshops; there has been asubsequent increase in inventionreports and patents filed.

Due to extensive links betweenUniversity College Cork andTeagasc Moorepark researchers in the “Food for Health” area, manypatented technologies are jointlyowned between by the two parties.A joint IP Commercialisationcommittee was established in 2007to manage the patent portfolio andstrives to commercialise suchtechnologies which has led to anumber of exclusive evaluationsand licenses with relevant food anddairy companies in 2008.

Other major achievements in 2008 include the finalisation of agreements for large scalecollaborative projects such as theEnterprise Ireland / Industry led“Food for Health Ireland”, the“Marine Functional Food Initiative”funded by DAFF / Marine Instituteand three Science FoundationIreland funded strategic researchclusters. Such initiatives areexpected to lead to a furtherincrease in licensing of Teagasctechnologies in the coming years.

This combination of factors has resulted in almost a doubling of invention reporting, patentapplications and evaluation/ licenceagreements in 2008 compared with 2007. With net income from

company evaluation and licensingexpected to increase in comingyears, professional management of intellectual property is a criticalfactor in increasing competitivenessin the bio-economy and deliveringvalue for money through successfulexploitation of research outputs byindustry.

Library and Information ServicesThe main focus of the libraryservice continues to be on theprovision of improved electronicservices. The Electronic JournalsService was expanded to include over 200 e-journals with 3,000+ user sessions recorded.Access was also provided to Web of Science to improve access to scientific literature as well as citation search and trackingfacilities. Training in the use of all the available resources wasprovided to researchers and thelibrary web site was updated toenable easy access to resources.

The acquisition of relevant printresources to support researchprogrammes continued with over1,800 document supply requestsmet during 2008.

62

Teagasc scientist Dr. Dan Milbourne during thefilming of “The Investigators” TV programme.

Teagasc researcher Dr. Sinead Waters, withstudents visiting the Animal Production ResearchCentre, Athenry as part of Science Week.

Right: students Marion Ruane and Gary Heagneystudy a tape worm.

Prof. Gerry Boyle, Director of Teagasc;Galatios Moschonas, winner of the annual

Walsh Fellowships seminar for his presentationon ‘Blown Pack Spoilage’; and Billy Reynolds,

Chairman, RDS Committee of Agriculture andRural Affairs.

Change ManagementThe Evaluation function in Teagascwas strengthened with additionalresources allocated in 2008.The two main projects carried out by the Evaluation Unit in 2008 were the evaluation of theInformation and CommunicationsTechnology strategy 2002-2006 and the peer review of theenvironment research programme.An evaluation of the HumanResources strategy, a peer review of part of the food researchprogramme and an evaluation of the certificate and advancedcertificate in horsemanship andstud management are underwayand will be completed in early2009.

Business Planning and Risk ManagementA new Statement of Strategy for theperiod 2008 to 2010 was preparedfollowing external and internalconsultation.

Key corporate planningdocuments (Rolling Five YearBusiness Plan, Corporate RiskRegister and Annual Programme)were prepared and submitted to the Department of Agriculture,Fisheries and Food to meetregulatory requirements.In addition, a formal Level 1Business plan was prepared for the Authority and reviewed duringthe year.

Capital Investment Appraisalguidelines were updated andcapital project appraisals werereviewed during the year.

Plans for the development of a comprehensive ManagementInformation Framework will move inline with the general reorganisationof structures that is currentlyunderway.

Health and SafetyAs part of the Teagasc / HSAprevention initiative approximately3,000 adult farmers were trained in a new format course. A nationalgeo-spatial study of fatal farmaccidents was completed and the findings were presented at anAll Island Farm Safety conference.

There were 21 fatal accidentsamongst the farming community in 2008, which is a substantialincrease on the previous year when 11 fatalities occurred.

Verification of the Health and Safety management system wascompleted through four locationaudits and the training of 92 staff.A radon survey was completed at 18 locations. There were 32reported accidents in 2008,following which 16 staff were back at work within three days.

Property ServicesIn line with the annual CapitalBudget, sales to the value of €4.755million were finalised during theyear and site acquisitions werecompleted in Leitrim and Limerick(€0.615m). The Small CapitalProgramme which funds minorimprovement projects at a range of locations throughout the countryaccounted for a total of €2 million.Six leases were renewed during theyear.

Following the completion of the Johnstown Castle ConservationPlan which was finalised in 2007,Teagasc has been working inconjunction with the Irish HeritageCouncil and the Irish Heritage Truston the development of a feasibilitystudy to identify potential futureuses for the Castle.

64

Teagasc Document Management SystemHuk Mok was born in Hong Kong andeducated in UCD where he graduatedwith an M.Sc. in Computer Science.He has worked in the informationtechnology industries in Ireland,Canada, Hong Kong and Malaysia.He joined Teagasc in September 2005as an Applications Analyst workingfrom Oak Park and is responsible forrolling out the Document ManagementSystem within Teagasc.

Teagasc is a knowledgeorganisation, and vast amounts ofinformation are generated each year.Staff continuously create, use, reuseand distribute information. Significantamounts of Teagasc information are in the form of papers, reports,databases and written advice on awide range of projects and topics.These information assets must becarefully managed and secured.A Document Management System

(DMS) was introduced into Teagasc in December 2007 to help managethese information assets. It wasdeployed in the Grange BeefResearch Centre as a pilot project.The DMS has now been successfullyadopted by other departmentsincluding the Agriculture ResearchDirectorate, Administration Directorateand Advisory Directorate. More rollouts are planned for 2009.

The DMS is best for managingunstructured documents such asscanned paper documents, photos,MS-Office documents, PDFs etc.It allows users to quickly retrieveinformation that they need using thesearch tools provided by the DMS.

One area that the DMS is wellsuited to is the management of client documentation in the AdvisoryServices Directorate. An advance pilot was rolled out to the WexfordManagement Unit to capture clientdocumentation for the REPS4 scheme.

All documents related to a client whoparticipates in REPS4 are captured in the DMS. These documents areindexed based on the Client ID, ClientSurname, Client Firstname, DocumentType and Year of Scheme.

Advisory, Planners andAdministrative staff can easily retrievedocuments based on these propertieswhich will reduce the amount of time required to service a customerand also the volume of paperdocumentation. The DMS is designedin such a way to ensure it is flexibleenough to accommodate otherschemes. Plans to extend the DMS to capture all client documents are in progress, including OptionsProgramme Action Plan, Soil Samples,Student Application etc. The aim isbetter, more seamless, managementof documents and improved service for clients.

HUK MOKApplications AnalystTeagasc Headquarters

Pictured at the tree planting in Teagasc, Moorepark atthe 50th anniversary celebrations of the founding ofAFT were Professor Liam Donnelly; Head of Centre,Moorepark Food Research Centre; Dr. Rita Hickey,newest staff member and Michael Reidy, longestserving staff member.

Teagasc Headquarters, Oak Park, Carlow.

65

The Research Vision Programmewas progressed in 2008 anddevelopment work wascommenced on the projectsidentified in the Programmeincluding the establishment ofSteering Groups in relation to each of the projects.

A basic access survey of allbuildings has been completed and an energy efficiency survey is underway.

Irish LanguageAn action plan for theimplementation of the IrishLanguage Scheme was identifiedfor 2008 and progress has beenmade in a number of areasincluding training initiatives, actionsidentified in the scheme under ICT and the incorporation ofbilingualism at a number of highprofile public events within theorganisation throughout the year.

Customer Service Action Plan(CSAP) 2008-2010Outcomes for the 2008 CSAPinclude:

Quality Service Standards2,000 comment cards received from Advisory clients in 2008 statethat 72% of respondents are verysatisfied with the quality of servicereceived. 24% were satisfied, 2%were dissatisfied and 2% were verydissatisfied.

Equality/DiversityThree FETAC courses translatedinto Eastern European languages

Physical AccessGeneral access survey of allTeagasc buildings carried out in2008. Detailed full access auditconducted in:• Kildalton College• Portlaoise Advisory and Training

offices • Roscommon Advisory office• Mullingar Advisory office• Ballyhaise college (part of)

Information• 94 press releases issued• 4 issues of TResearch magazine • 6 Issues of Today’s farm • Newsletters sent to advisory

clients monthly with researchupdates • 3 issues of Moorepark News• 3 issues of the Ashtown Food

Innovator

Timeliness and Courtesy96% of those completingcomment cards (2,000comments cards received) in2008 stated that the servicethey received was prompt

and efficient. 99% said they weretreated with courtesy.

ComplaintsComment cards are available in alloffices.

AppealsLevel 5 Agriculture – Satisfactionwith assessment appeals procedure– 41% very satisfied, 51% satisfied,7% moderately satisfied and 1%dissatisfied.

Consultation and Evaluation21 stakeholder partnership groups met in 2008 representing 12enterprises. 81 organisations and79 operators attended stakeholderpartnership meetings.

Choice128 courses delivered over 1,099evenings. 2,663 participantsattended courses outside normalworking hours.

Official Languages Equality8 staff participated in training in2008 in preparation for delivery ofservices through Irish.

Better Co-ordination21 stakeholder partnership groups met in 2008 representing 12enterprises. 81 organisations and79 operators attended stakeholderpartnership meetings.

Internal CustomerInternal Customer ServiceProtocols agreed by Partnershipand Senior Management issued toall staff.

66

Catherine McCague Pensions Officerconducting a seminar in 2008. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Year ended 31 December 2008

67

CONTENTS Page

REPORT OF THE COMPTROLLER AND AUDITOR GENERAL 69

STATEMENT ON INTERNAL FINANCIAL CONTROL 71

STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE AUTHORITY 72

ACCOUNTING POLICIES 73

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT 75

BALANCE SHEET 76

CASH FLOW STATEMENT 77

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 78

FINANCIAL STATEMENTSYear ended 31 December 2008

68

I have audited the financial statements of Teagasc for the year ended 31 December 2008 under the Agriculture (Research, Trainingand Advice) Act 1988.

The financial statements, which have been prepared under the accounting policies set out therein, comprise the Accounting Policies,the Income and Expenditure Account, the Statement of Total Recognised Gains and Losses, the Balance Sheet, the Cash FlowStatement, and the related notes.

Respective Responsibilities of the Members of the Authority and the Comptroller and Auditor General

The Authority is responsible for preparing the financial statements in accordance with the Agriculture (Research, Training andAdvice) Act 1988, and for ensuring the regularity of transactions. The Authority prepares the financial statements in accordance withGenerally Accepted Accounting Practice in Ireland. The accounting responsibilities of the Members of the Authority are set out inthe Statement of Responsibilities of the Authority.

My responsibility is to audit the financial statements in accordance with relevant legal and regulatory requirements and InternationalStandards on Auditing (UK and Ireland).

I report my opinion as to whether the financial statements give a true and fair view, in accordance with Generally AcceptedAccounting Practice in Ireland. I also report whether in my opinion proper books of account have been kept. In addition, I statewhether the financial statements are in agreement with the books of account.

I report any material instance where moneys have not been applied for the purposes intended or where the transactions do notconform to the authorities governing them.

I also report if I have not obtained all the information and explanations necessary for the purposes of my audit.

I review whether the Statement on Internal Financial Control reflects the Authority's compliance with the Code of Practice for theGovernance of State Bodies and report any material instance where it does not do so, or if the statement is misleading or inconsistentwith other information of which I am aware from my audit of the financial statements. I am not required to consider whether theStatement on Internal Financial Control covers all financial risks and controls, or to form an opinion on the effectiveness of the riskand control procedures.

I read other information contained in the Annual Report, and consider whether it is consistent with the audited financial statements.I consider the implications for my report if I become aware of any apparent misstatements or material inconsistencies with thefinancial statements.

Basis of Audit OpinionIn the exercise of my function as Comptroller and Auditor General, I conducted my audit of the financial statements in accordancewith International Standards on Auditing (UK and Ireland) issued by the Auditing Practices Board and by reference to the specialconsiderations which attach to State bodies in relation to their management and operation. An audit includes examination, on a testbasis, of evidence relevant to the amounts and disclosures and regularity of the financial transactions included in the financialstatements. It also includes an assessment of the significant estimates and judgments made in the preparation of the financialstatements, and of whether the accounting policies are appropriate to the Authority's circumstances, consistently applied andadequately disclosed.

I planned and performed my audit so as to obtain all the information and explanations that I considered necessary in order toprovide me with sufficient evidence to give reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement,whether caused by fraud or other irregularity or error. In forming my opinion I also evaluated the overall adequacy of thepresentation of information in the financial statements.

REPORT OF THE COMPTROLLER & AUDITOR GENERALfor presentation to the Houses of the Oireachtas

69

On behalf of the Authority of Teagasc I acknowledge our responsibility for ensuring that an effective system of internal financialcontrol is maintained and operated.

Any system of internal financial control can provide only reasonable and not absolute assurance against material error, misstatementor loss. In considering the effectiveness of internal financial controls, the Authority and its Audit Committee have regard, amongother things, to the requirements of the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies.

The Authority has taken steps to ensure that an appropriate control environment is in place by:

• clearly defining management responsibilities, authority and accountability;• establishing formal procedures for monitoring the activities and safeguarding the assets of Teagasc;• developing a culture of accountability across all levels of the organisation.

The Authority has established procedures to identify business risks within Teagasc by:

• identifying the nature, extent and financial implication of risks facing Teagasc including the extent and categories which it regardsas acceptable;

• assessing the likelihood of identified risks occurring;• assessing Teagasc’s ability to manage and mitigate the risks that do occur;• assessing the costs of operating particular controls relative to the benefit obtained.

The system of internal financial control is based on a framework of regular management reporting, administration proceduresincluding segregation of duties and a system of delegation and accountability including:

• a comprehensive annual budgeting and financial reporting system which is reviewed and approved by the Authority;• regular reviews by the Authority of overall strategy, business and financial plans and variances against operating and capital

budgets.

Teagasc has an internal audit function, which operates in accordance with the requirements of the Code of Practice for theGovernance of State Bodies and with the effectiveness criteria set out in the Teagasc Statement of Strategy published in 2007.The work of internal audit is informed by analysis of the risks to which Teagasc is exposed and annual internal audit plans are basedon this analysis. The internal audit plans are approved by the Audit Committee. In 2008 the Authority retained an external expert toadvise the Audit Committee.

The Authority's monitoring and review of the effectiveness of the system of internal financial control is informed by the work of theinternal auditor, the Audit Committee which oversees the work of the internal auditor, the executive managers within Teagascresponsible for the development and maintenance of the financial control framework and comments made by the Comptroller andAuditor General in his management letter.

I confirm that the Authority conducted a review of the effectiveness of the systems of internal financial control in 2008 andimplemented appropriate actions.

The report on the ‘Review of Effectiveness of System of Internal Financial Control’ was approved by the Authority at its meeting of 7January 2009. The Audit Committee considered the report and some further background information on the review as presentedby the Internal Auditor at its meeting of 4 February 2009.

Dr. Noel Cawley Chairman 24 June 2009

STATEMENT ON INTERNAL FINANCIAL CONTROL

Emphasis of Matter - Staff ExpenditureIn the course of the audit it was noted that certain expenditure was incurred on staff entertainment and travel which was not whollybusiness related. The gross outlay involved was of the order of €80,000. However, because of the mixed objectives of the spendsome of which related to staff development it was not possible to precisely quantify the non-effective element. I have been assuredby the Authority that on foot of a review of the matter appropriate policies on staff entertainment and foreign travel have now beendevised and published, improved guidance on the application of budgets has been put in place and staff have been reminded ofthe acceptable use of public funds in relation to entertainment type expenditure.

OpinionIn my opinion, the financial statements give a true and fair view, in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Practice inIreland, of the state of the Authority's affairs at 31 December 2008 and of its income and expenditure for the year then ended.

In my opinion, proper books of account have been kept by the Authority. The financial statements are in agreement with the booksof account.

John BuckleyComptroller and Auditor General 30 June 2009

REPORT OF THE COMPTROLLER & AUDITOR GENERALfor presentation to the Houses of the Oireachtas

7170

The significant accounting policies adopted by Teagasc are as follows:

Basis of accountingThe Financial Statements have been prepared in accordance with the historical cost convention, subject to certain assets beingincluded at a valuation (see below), and in a form approved by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food with the consent ofthe Minister for Finance under the Agriculture (Research, Training and Advice) Act, 1988. The Financial Statements have beenprepared using the accruals method of accounting except as stated below and in accordance with generally accepted accountingpractices. Financial Reporting Standards recommended by the recognised accountancy bodies are adopted as they becomeapplicable.

State fundingState funding for research in the Food sector and for the Stimulus collaborative research programme is accounted for on an accrualsbasis. All other State funding is accounted for on a cash receipts basis.

Research and other projectsGrants in respect of research and other projects are included as income in the year in which the related expenditure is incurred.

Tangible fixed assets and depreciationAssets were taken over from An Chomhairle Oiliúna Talmhaíochta and An Foras Talúntais on 8th September 1988 at the closingvalues in the Balance Sheets of those bodies. Additions are stated at cost.

Land is not depreciated. The cost or valuation of other owned fixed assets is written off by equal instalments over their expecteduseful lives as follows:

Farm Buildings 20 years

Other Buildings 50 years

Plant and Vehicles 5 years

Computer Equipment 3 years

Laboratory and Office Equipment 10 years

Assets held under finance leases are depreciated over the lease term, where this is shorter than their expected useful lives.

A half year’s depreciation is charged in the years of acquisition and disposal of assets.

LeasesFixed assets acquired under finance leases are treated in accordance with the policy noted above under fixed assets. The capitalelement of related rental obligations is included under liabilities, while the interest element is charged to expenditure over the termof the primary lease period.

Rentals on operating leases are charged to expenditure as incurred.

Capital accountThe balance on this account represents the unamortised value of funds used to purchase fixed assets.

StocksStocks have been valued by Teagasc officials. Livestock and own farm produce are valued at estimated net realisable value.Net realisable value is determined on the basis that animals are sold for slaughter. Gains and losses, which arise from thesevaluations, are reflected in full in operational income. All other stocks are valued at the lower of cost and net realisable value.

DebtorsKnown bad debts are written off as they arise and specific provision is made where recovery is considered doubtful.

ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Under Section 12(1) of the Agriculture (Research, Training and Advice) Act, 1988, the Authority is required to prepare financialstatements in such form as may be approved by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food with the concurrence of the Ministerfor Finance. In preparing those financial statements, the Authority is required to:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;• make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;• prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that Teagasc will continue in

operation;• disclose and explain any material departures from applicable accounting standards.

The Authority is responsible for keeping proper books of account which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financialposition of Teagasc and which enable it to ensure that the financial statements comply with statutory requirements. The books ofaccount are kept at the Authority’s headquarters at Oak Park, Carlow. The Authority is also responsible for safeguarding the assetsof Teagasc and for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Dr. Noel Cawley James BrettChairman Member of the Authority24 June 2009

STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE AUTHORITY

7372

31 December 31 December2008 2007

Notes €’000 €’000

IncomeState funding 2 148,873 149,802EU funding 3 1,684 1,361Operational income 4 32,252 30,413Net deferred funding for pensions 9 21,982 26,162Surplus on disposal of fixed assets 24 4,616 36,878Other grants, donations and voluntary levies 3,395 3,320

212,802 247,936

Expenditure 5 213,933 205,106

(1,131) 42,830

Transfer to Capital Account 12 (10,936) (3,594)Transfer to Exchequer 24 0 (9,400)

(Deficit)/Surplus for the financial year (12,067) 29,836

Balance at beginning of year 31,037 1,201

Balance at end of year 18,970 31,037

STATEMENT OF TOTAL RECOGNISED GAINS AND LOSSES


Notes €’000 €’000

(Deficit)/Surplus for the financial year (12,067) 29,836

Experience losses on pension scheme liabilities 9 (5,155) (17,031)Changes in assumptions underlying the present value of pension liabilities 9 (8,539) 169,389

Actuarial (Loss)/Gain on pension liabilities (13,694) 152,358Adjustment to Deferred pension funding 13,694 (152,358)

Total Recognised (Loss)/Gain for the year (12,067) 29,836

The above amounts relate entirely to continuing operations. The Statement of Accounting Policies and notes 1 to 26 form part of theseFinancial Statements.

Dr. Noel Cawley Professor Gerry BoyleChairman Director

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNTYear ended 31 December 2008

PensionsTeagasc operates defined benefit pension schemes which are funded annually on a pay as you go basis from monies available toit, including monies provided by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and from contributions deducted from staffsalaries.

Pension Scheme liabilities are measured on an actuarial basis using the projected unit method.

Pension costs reflect pension benefits earned by employees in the period and are shown net of staff pension contributions whichare retained by Teagasc. An amount corresponding to the pension charge is recognised as income to the extent that it is recoverable,and offset by grants received in the year to discharge pension payments.

Actuarial gains or losses arising from changes in Actuarial assumptions and from experience surpluses and deficits are recognisedin the Statement of Total Recognised Gains and Losses for the year and a corresponding adjustment is recognised in the amountrecoverable from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Pension liabilities represent the present value of future pension payments earned by staff to date. Deferred pension fundingrepresents the corresponding asset to be recovered in future periods from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Moorepark Technology LimitedMoorepark Technology Limited is a joint venture between Teagasc and various agriculture co-operatives. Teagasc has a 57%holding in the paid up share capital of the company. Separate audited financial statements have been prepared in respect ofMoorepark Technology Limited. It was not considered appropriate to consolidate the results of the company (Note 14).

Foreign CurrencyTransactions denominated in foreign currencies are translated into Euro and recorded at the rates of exchange ruling at the datesof the transactions. Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies are translated into Euro at the rates ofexchange ruling at the balance sheet date.

ACCOUNTING POLICIES

7574


Notes €’000 €’000

Reconciliation of operating surplus to net cash inflow from operating activitiesOperating (deficit) / surplus (12,067) 29,836Depreciation 13 6,953 6,748Transfer to capital account 12 10,936 3,594Interest received (1,643) (839)Profit on sale of fixed assets (4,616) (36,878)(Increase) in stocks (398) (181)(Increase) in debtors (1,834) (2,383)(Decrease) / Increase in creditors and long term liabilities (1,659) 413Increase in deferred income 4,123 4,718

Net cash (outflow) / inflow from operating activities (205) 5,028

CASH FLOW STATEMENT

Net cash (outflow) / inflow from operating activities (205) 5,028

Return on investment and servicing of financeInterest received 1,643 839

Net cash inflow from returns on investment and servicing of finance 1,643 839

Investing activitiesPayments to acquire tangible fixed assets 13 (18,185) (10,586)Receipts from disposals of tangible fixed assets 4,912 37,126

Net cash outflow from investing activities (13,273) 26,540

FinancingProperty loan repayments 0 (4)

Net cash outflow from financing 0 (4)

(Decrease) / Increase in cash 23 (11,835) 32,403

Reconciliation of net cashflow to movement in net fundsIncrease in cash 23 (11,835) 32,403Net funds at 1 January 42,669 10,266

Net funds at 31 December 30,834 42,669

The Statement of Accounting Policies and notes 1 to 26 form part of these Financial Statements.


CASH FLOW STATEMENTYear ended 31 December 2008


Notes €’000 €’000Fixed assetsTangible assets 13 94,338 83,402Financial assets 14 2 2

94,340 83,404

Current assetsStocks 16 5,543 5,145Debtors 17 9,437 7,603Bank balances 30,236 41,992Short term deposits 598 677

45,814 55,417

Creditors - Amounts falling due within one yearCreditors and accruals 18 13,635 15,294Deferred income 19 13,211 9,088

26,846 24,382

Net current assets 18,968 31,035

Total assets less current liabilities before pensions 113,308 114,439

Deferred pension funding 9 871,574 835,898Pension liabilities 9 (871,574) (835,898)

0 0

Net assets 113,308 114,439

Represented byCapital account 12 94,338 83,402Income and Expenditure account 18,970 31,037

113,308 114,439

The Statement of Accounting Policies and notes 1 to 26 form part of these Financial Statements.


BALANCE SHEETYear ended 31 December 2008

7776

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ...continued

1 Teagasc (the Agriculture and Food Development Authority)

Teagasc (the Agriculture and Food Development Authority) was established under the Agriculture (Research, Training andAdvice) Act, 1988. Under Section 21 of the Act, the assets and liabilities of An Chomhairle Oiliúna Talmhaíochta and An ForasTalúntais were transferred to Teagasc upon its establishment.

Section 12 of the Act requires that Accounts shall be kept in such form as may be approved by the Minister for Agriculture,Fisheries and Food with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance. This approval was given on 14 August 1998.

2 State funding 2008 2007€’000 €’000

The amount shown under this heading comprises:Vote 31: Agriculture, Fisheries and FoodGrant-in-aid for general expenses (including Grant for capital purposes, €3m, 100,610 102,5092007 - €5m)Grant-in-aid for superannuation purposes 26,754 25,541Grant-in-aid for human resource purposes 12,600 12,400Food research and agriculture research 5,372 6,442Stimulus collaborative research programme 2,839 2,080Grant for forestry publicity and awareness 528 795Grant for forestry training 170 35

148,873 149,802

3 EU funding 2008 2007€'000 €'000

Farm Survey Income 269 233Framework Programme VI 1,343 1,128Framework Programme VII 72 0

1,684 1,361

Framework Programmes have been the main financial tools through which the European Union supports research anddevelopment activities covering almost all scientific disciplines. Framework Programmes cover a period of five years with thelast year of one Framework Programme and the first year of the following Framework Programme overlapping. FrameworkProgramme VI ran up to the end of 2007. Framework Programme VII started on 1 January 2008 and runs to the end of 2013.

Teagasc carries out EU funded research through the Framework Programmes. Grants in respect of such research are taken intoaccount as income when the corresponding expenditure has been incurred.

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

7978

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7 Livestock trading surplus 2008 2007€’000 €’000

Sales 2,833 2,675Grants and subsidies 789 699

Total livestock trading revenue 3,622 3,374

Opening stock 4,187 4,167Purchases 1,217 853

5,404 5,020Less: Closing stock (4,701) (4,187)

Total cost of livestock sales 703 833

Surplus to Income and Expenditure account (Note 4) 2,919 2,541

8 Staff 2008 2007

The average number of staff employed during the year was as follows:Professional 824 796Technical 199 210Administrative/clerical 282 288Farm/domestic 285 302

1,590 1,596

9 Superannuation

Section 9 of the Agriculture (Research, Training and Advice) Act, 1988 provides for the establishment of schemes for the grantingof superannuation benefits in respect of staff appointed by Teagasc and staff transferred to Teagasc from An Chomhairle OiliúnaTalmhaíochta and from An Foras Talúntais.

Pending the approval of draft superannuation schemes by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Minister forFinance and the Oireachtas, Teagasc operates superannuation schemes on an administrative basis.

Teagasc also administers two superannuation schemes (the Agricultural Colleges Staff Superannuation Scheme 1985 and theAgricultural Colleges Spouses’ and Children’s Contributory Pension Scheme 1985) in respect of certain staff employed byprivately-owned Colleges of Agriculture and Horticulture, the cost of whose salaries is borne by the Exchequer through theagency of Teagasc.

The above schemes are defined benefit superannuation schemes. No separate fund is maintained, and no assets are held, tofinance the payment of pensions and gratuities. The actuarial estimate of future liabilities accruing in regard to future benefitsis shown on the Balance Sheet.

The average number of monthly pensions paid during the year was 1,432 (2007 – 1,425).

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ...continuedNOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS ...continued

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Superannuation costs

(i) Analysis of total pension costs charged to income and expenditure account2008 2007

€’000 €’000

Current service cost 14,462 18,410Interest on scheme liabilities 45,454 43,849Staff contributions (4,959) (4,628)

54,957 57,631

(ii) Movement in net pension liability during the financial year2008 2007

€’000 €’000

Net pension liability at 1 January 835,898 962,094Current service cost 14,462 18,410Benefits paid (37,934) (36,097)Interest on scheme liabilities 45,454 43,849Actuarial loss / (gain) 13,694 (152,358)

Net pension liability at 31 December 871,574 835,898

(iii) Deferred funding asset for pensions

Teagasc recognises as an asset an amount corresponding to the unfunded deferred liability for pensions on the basis of the setof assumptions described above and a number of past events. These events include the statutory basis for the establishment ofthe superannuation schemes, and the policy and practice currently in place in relation to funding public service pensions including contributions by employees and the annual estimates process. While there is no formal agreement regarding these specific amounts with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Teagasc has no evidence that this funding policy willnot continue to meet such sums in accordance with current practice.

Net deferred funding for pensions in the year 2008 2007€’000 €’000

Funding recoverable in respect of current years pensions 59,916 62,259Resources applied to pay pensions (37,934) (36,097)

21,982 26,162

The deferred funding asset for pensions as at 31 December 2008 was €872 million (2007 - €836 million).

(iv) History of defined benefit obligations 2008 2007 2006€’000 €’000 €’000

Experience losses (5,155) (17,031) (26,362)Percentage of present value of scheme liabilities 0.6% 2.0% 2.7%

Changes in Assumptions (8,539) 169,389 14,999Percentage of present value of scheme liabilities 0.98% 20.3% 2.6%

Actuarial (loss) / gain recognised in the STRGL (13,694) 152,358 (11,363)


The cumulative actuarial loss recognised in the Statement of Total Recognised Gains and Losses amounts to €11,329,000.

(v) General Description of the Scheme

The pension scheme is a defined benefit final salary pension arrangement with benefits and contributions defined by referenceto current “model” public sector scheme regulations. The scheme provides a pension (eightieths per year of service), a gratuitylump sum (three eightieths per year of service) and spouse’s and children’s pensions. Normal retirement age is a members 65thbirthday, and pre 2004 members have an entitlement to retire without actuarial reduction from age 60. Pensions in payment (anddeferment) normally increase in line with general public sector salary inflation.

The valuation used for FRS17 disclosures has been based on an actuarial valuation by a qualified independent actuary on 28January 2009 to take account of the requirements of FRS17 (revised) in order to assess the scheme liabilities at 31 December 2008.

The principal actuarial assumptions used to calculate liabilities under FRS17 are as follows:

2008 2007% per annum % per annum

Inflation rate increase 2.00 2.50 Salary rate increase 3.50 4.00 Pension rate increase 3.50 3.50 Scheme liabilities discount rate 5.70 5.50

The mortality basis adopted allows for improvements in life expectancy over time, so that life expectancy at retirement willdepend on the year in which a member attains retirement age (age 65). The table below shows the life expectancy for membersattaining age 65 in 2008, 2028 and 2048.

Year of attaining 65 2008 2028 2048

Life expectancy-male 85.7 86.8 86.8Life expectancy-female 88.8 89.8 89.8

On the basis of these and other assumptions and applying the projected unit method prescribed in FRS17, the present value ofpension scheme liabilities is as follows:

2008 2007€’000 €’000

Accumulated liabilities in respect of active scheme members 367,429 344,604Liabilities in respect of existing pensioners and deferred pensions 504,145 491,294

Total accrued pension liability 871,574 835,898

Demographic assumptions have changed and have resulted in an actuarial loss.

(vi) Revised FRS 17 Disclosures

The information on pensions has been presented in line with new disclosure requirements required from 2008 under anamendment to FRS 17.

10 Audit fee

A provision of €50,500 has been included in expenditure in respect of auditor’s remuneration for 2008 (2007 - €50,500).


83

82

Included in the opening balances is land totalling 522.8 ha (1,291.3 acres) transferred by the Department of Agriculture,Fisheries and Food at nominal values, and certain other assets which were revalued at 31 December 1975 or 1 July 1980.

Teagasc has the use of 38.0 ha (94 acres) of land owned by the Department of Agriculture & Food, while the Department has the use of 27.1 ha (67 acres) owned by Teagasc. There is no charge to either party arising from these arrangements.

Certain fixed assets entrusted to Teagasc are protected by statute, and may not be sold.

14 Financial assets

Teagasc has a 57% holding in the paid up share capital of Moorepark Technology Limited (5,100 shares at €0.127).The Company, which was incorporated on 18 January 1991, is a joint venture between Teagasc and various agriculture co-operatives.

Separate audited financial statements have been prepared in respect of the Company and its results for the year ended 31 December 2008 were as follows:

2008 2007€’000 €’000

Turnover 1,123 1,184

Operating profit before depreciation, interest and tax 248 199Depreciation (net of grants amortised) (248) (199)Interest receipts 4 6Tax 2 0

Profit after taxation 6 6

Accumulated profits to 31 December 33 27

The Company’s Memorandum of Association provides that shareholders are entitled to avail of the Company’s services atpreferential rates.

Trading transactions between Teagasc and Moorepark Technology Limited (which consists of consultancy, analyses and use oftechnical and other facilities) were as follows:

2008 2007€’000 €’000

Moorepark Technology Limited sales to Teagasc (included in turnover) 378 251Other recoupments from Teagasc (deducted from cost of sales) 0 0

Total 378 251

Amounts owed to Moorepark Technology Limited at 31 December 69 35

Teagasc sales to Moorepark Technology Limited 140 163

Amounts owed to Teagasc at 31 December 6 47

Under the terms of the Moorepark Technology Limited Promoters’ Agreement, Teagasc has undertaken to provide from its ownresources specified staff requirements in Moorepark Technology Limited, as well as underwriting the Company’s utility, stores,accounts and effluent overheads. These costs were as follows:


11 Authority fees and emoluments

The following emoluments were paid to members of the Authority:2008 2007

€’000 €’000

Chairman 24 24Other Authority members 124 124

148 148

These amounts are included in the total pay expenditure included under Note 5 above.

12 Capital account2008 2007

€’000 €’000

Balance at 1 January 83,402 79,808

Transfers from income and expenditure accountAmount capitalised in respect of purchased assets 18,185 10,586Net amount released on disposals (296) (248)Property loan repayments 0 4

17,889 10,342Less: Amortised in line with asset depreciation (6,953) (6,748)

10,936 3,594

Balance at 31 December 94,338 83,402

13 Tangible fixed assetsLand Buildings Plant & Total

equipment €’000 €’000 €’000 €’000

Cost or valuationAt beginning of year 5,810 86,997 62,155 154,962Additions 0 13,188 4,997 18,185Disposals 0 (129) (7,275) (7,404)

At end of year 5,810 100,056 59,877 165,743

Accumulated depreciationAt beginning of year 0 30,107 41,453 71,560Charge for year 0 2,341 4,612 6,953Disposals 0 (124) (6,984) (7,108)

At end of year 0 32,324 39,081 71,405

Net book amountsAt beginning of year 5,810 56,890 20,702 83,402

At end of year 5,810 67,732 20,796 94,338


8584

17 Debtors and prepayments2008 2007

€’000 €’000

Trade debtors 4,799 4,357Other debtors, prepayments and accrued income 4,638 3,246

9,437 7,603

All amounts included above fall due within one year.

18 Creditors - Amounts falling due within one year2008 2007

€’000 €’000

Trade creditors 2,143 2,987Income tax deducted under PAYE 1,805 1,658Pay related social insurance 814 707 Value added tax 313 1,866Withholding tax 163 166Other creditors and accruals 8,397 7,910

13,635 15,294

Creditors for taxation and social welfare included above 3,095 4,397

19 Deferred income

Teagasc carries out public funded research in accordance with contracts with other State Institutions, principally the Departmentof Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Grants in respect of such research are taken into account as income when the correspondingexpenditure has been incurred under each contract.

At 31 December the source and amount of deferred income in respect of research and other projects was as follows:2008 2007

€’000 €’000

Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food – advance for FIRM projects 2,806 1,625Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food – advance for Stimulus projects 3,879 4,197European Science Foundation – Food Safety Promotion 480 429Other research related deferrals 4,859 1,566Amounts received in advance for work associated with the completion of sale of land at Athenry 1,187 1,271

13,211 9,088

20 Finance leases

At 31 December 2008 Teagasc had no obligations under finance leases (2007 - Nil).

There were no finance charges incurred during the year under finance leases (2007 - Nil).

21 Capital commitments

Capital commitments outstanding at 31 December 2008 amounted to €7.20 million (2007 - €5.08 million).


2008 2007€’000 €’000

Staff 185 177

Other 190 162

These totals are included in Teagasc expenditure under Food Research (Notes 5 and 6).

Moorepark Technology Limited utilises assets owned by Teagasc as follows:2008 2007

€’000 €’000

Original Costs 1,196 1,196

Net Book Value at 31 December 53 97

These amounts are included under Plant and Equipment (see Note 13 above).

In accordance with the Promoters’ Agreement, Teagasc has also leased to Moorepark Technology Limited at a nominal rent of€127 per annum its existing processing hall at Moorepark Dairy Products Centre together with an adjoining site on which theCompany has constructed additional facilities.

It was not considered appropriate to consolidate the results of the Company.

Teagasc has three small investments in agricultural co-operatives costing €1,243 in total (2007 - €1,243).

15 Private Colleges

Teagasc provides support to four private agricultural colleges as follows:2008 2007

€’000 €’000

Grants to private colleges 5,286 4,697Staff seconded to private colleges (included in the total pay expenditure in Note 5 above) 513 514

5,799 5,211

16 Stocks2008 2007

€’000 €’000

Livestock 4,701 4,187Farm produce, fertilisers and feeding stocks 668 695General supplies 174 263

5,543 5,145


8786

22 Operating leases

At 31 December 2008 Teagasc had annual commitments under non-cancellable operating leases as follows:Land and Plant and Totalbuildings machinery

€’000 €’000 €’000Leases which expire:Within one year 11 46 57Between two and five years 269 101 370After five years 119 0 119

399 147 546

23 Analysis of changes in net funds during the year1 January Cashflows 31 December

2008 2008€’000 €’000 €’000

Cash at bank and on hand 41,992 (11,756) 30,236Bank overdraft 0 0 0Short-term deposits 677 (79) 598

At end of year 42,669 (11,835) 30,834

24 Disposal of Fixed AssetsProceeds/ Proceeds/

Costs Costs€'000 €’000

Proceeds from sale of property*27.1 Hectares (67 acres) at Athenry 4,70215 Hectares (6 acres) at Grange 150Cottage at Ballyhaise College 105Cost of sales (161)

4,796Proceeds of sale from other assets 116

4,912Net book value of other fixed assets disposed (296)

4,616

*The written down value at the start of the year of the property sold was nil.

25 Authority members – disclosure of transactions

The Authority has adopted procedures in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Department of Finance in relation to thedisclosure of interest by Authority members and the Authority has adhered to these procedures. There were no transactions inthe year in relation to the Authority's activities in which board members had an interest.

26 Approval of the financial statements

The Authority approved the financial statements on 6 May 2009


88

annual report 2008

Documents

project report

food research

theirish agrifood

agrifood sector

rural areas60 goal

environment56 goal

agriculture research

rural economyin