Decisions decisions – A farmer's mitigation dilemma

Abstract

Livestock producers are under rising pressure to nourish a growing population while simultaneously reducing the impact of meat/milk production on the planets’ climate. Decision Support Tools (DST) provide a valuable evidence-based decision-making framework in agriculture to improve productivity and environmental outputs. Decision Support Tools are often developed and designed by local stakeholders and tend to represent their national system. While current DSTs may be used to examine the impact of management choices on farm emissions, there are relatively few tools available for Irish farms that take into account both the environmental and financial aspects of decision-making. This research will improve existing farm scale descision support systems designed to cost effectively mitigate Green House Gas emissions from livestock production systems.