One of the major impacts on agriculture here from climate change over the next 25-40 years will be the need for significantly less nitrogen application by farmers to their lands, a conference in Tullamore has been told.
Dr John Sweeney of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, told the agriculture research forum that for many farmers, the key to adapting to climate change would centre either on maximising output or minimising inputs.
Dr Sweeney said that by running various international and national models of what was likely to happen, he concluded that in eastern parts of Ireland, water stress in grass, barley, potato and to a lesser extent maize would occur with much more often by the mid and later decades of this century.
Because of summer soil moisture deficits, milk yields would be expected to fall significantly during those months but these losses might be compensated for by a reduction in fertiliser inputs.
"Late summer feed deficits may occur and this may require supplementation. In particularly dry summers, cattle may require to be housed for a period."
In the midlands, Dr Sweeney added, less soil moisture stresses would take place in summer and good yields of grass, barley and maize could be expected. Later in the century, soybean could be expected to start displacing maize as a crop.
In a survey of farmers' attitudes to their occupation, Liam Connolly of the national farm survey department of Teagasc found that 90 per cent of the 1,010 surveyed agreed that farming was a good way of life and 93 per cent said they liked being their own boss. However, only 41 per cent agreed that traditionally farmers were held in high esteem in their communities.
A total of 93 per cent agreed with the view that their income was low and 75 per cent rejected the sentiment that farming involved working in unpleasant conditions.
Thirty-two per cent said isolation and loneliness were problems and another 10 per cent strongly agreed that this was a real issue facing them.
The survey found, however, that only 21 per cent of farms surveyed were confident that farming would be a good career for young people and most said that bigger farms combined with off-farm employment was required to sustain the sector.