{"id":17345,"date":"2026-10-30T19:12:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T19:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/?p=17345"},"modified":"2026-10-30T20:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T20:26:11","slug":"irish-sheep-farms-results-and-sustainability-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/it\/irish-sheep-farms-results-and-sustainability-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"[RESULTS] Irish sheep farms: Carbon Navigator results"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can sheep farms reduce their emissions while improving their income? In Ireland, the farm sustainability reports produced within LIFE Green Sheep compare results in 2020 and 2024 for three groups of farms: hill demonstration farms, lowland demonstration farms and innovative farms. They show a clear fall in greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions, alongside better economic results.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three groups of farms followed over four years<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Each report brings together environmental, technical and economic indicators: total farm greenhouse gas emissions (excluding carbon sequestration), ammonia emissions, nitrogen use, fertiliser and slurry practices, lamb output and economic returns per hectare. Comparing 2020 with 2024 makes it possible to measure the progress made over the course of the project.<\/p>\n

Emissions down in all three groups<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Total farm greenhouse gas emissions fell in every group: by 14% on hill farms, 20% on lowland farms and 24% on innovative farms. Emissions per hectare also fell, by 12% to 18%. Ammonia emissions dropped by 19% to 28%.<\/p>\n

These results are largely explained by a more careful use of nitrogen. Chemical nitrogen use per hectare fell by 15% to 36% depending on the group, and the nitrogen balance improved in all three. Farms also changed their practices: more protected urea instead of standard fertilisers, and more slurry spread with low-emission equipment (LESS). On innovative farms, all slurry was spread this way in 2024, compared with just over a third in 2020.<\/p>\n

Production maintained, margins up<\/strong><\/h2>\n

These environmental gains did not come at the expense of production. Lamb carcass output per hectare rose by 6% on hill farms and by 8% on innovative farms, and remained stable on lowland farms.<\/p>\n

Economic results improved markedly. Gross margin per hectare rose by 47% to 94% depending on the group, and family farm income per hectare by 16% to 59%. On innovative farms, for example, gross margin rose from \u20ac880 to \u20ac1,292 per hectare.<\/p>\n

Producing more and better<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Irish results illustrate one of the key messages of LIFE Green Sheep: better use of resources, starting with nitrogen, allows farms to reduce their environmental impact while improving their technical and economic performance.<\/p>\n

👉 [Download the Irish farm sustainability reports]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Demo Farms Lowland – 2-3 page summary<\/a> Demo Farms Hill – 2-3 page summary<\/a><\/p>\n

👉<\/strong> Results from innovative farms<\/strong><\/p>\n

Innovative Farms – 2-3 page summary (1)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can sheep farms reduce their emissions while improving their income? In Ireland, the farm sustainability reports produced within LIFE Green Sheep compare results in 2020 and 2024 for three groups of farms: hill demonstration farms, lowland demonstration farms and innovative farms. They show a clear fall in greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions, alongside better economic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-farm-results","category-news"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish.jpg",1108,846,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish.jpg",1108,846,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish.jpg",1108,846,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-300x229.jpg",300,229,true],"large":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-1024x782.jpg",1024,782,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish.jpg",1108,846,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish.jpg",1108,846,false],"orga-blog-thumb":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-150x120.jpg",150,120,true],"orga-blog-ii-column":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-750x500.jpg",750,500,true],"orga-blog-iii-column":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-540x360.jpg",540,360,true],"orga-blog-list":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-600x400.jpg",600,400,true],"orga-blog-ii-column-masonry":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-750x573.jpg",750,573,true],"orga-blog-iii-column-masonry":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-540x412.jpg",540,412,true],"orga-portfolio-ii-column":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-960x846.jpg",960,846,true],"orga-portfolio-iii-column":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-640x650.jpg",640,650,true],"orga-portfolio-iv-column":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-510x520.jpg",510,520,true],"orga-portfolio-iii&iv-fullwidth":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-780x790.jpg",780,790,true],"orga-event-list":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-420x336.jpg",420,336,true],"orga-event-single-type1":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-773x520.jpg",773,520,true],"orga-event-single-type4":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-570x460.jpg",570,460,true],"orga-event-single-type5":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-746x770.jpg",746,770,true],"orga-event-list2":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-420x275.jpg",420,275,true],"d4p-bbp-thumb":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-128x72.jpg",128,72,true],"gform-image-choice-sm":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish.jpg",300,229,false],"gform-image-choice-md":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish.jpg",400,305,false],"gform-image-choice-lg":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish.jpg",600,458,false],"psacp-medium":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish-500x500.jpg",500,500,true],"rt_custom":["https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/irish.jpg",1108,846,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Caroline Guinot","author_link":"https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/it\/author\/caroline\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Farm Results<\/a> News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Can sheep farms reduce their emissions while improving their income? In Ireland, the farm sustainability reports produced within LIFE Green Sheep compare results in 2020 and 2024 for three groups of farms: hill demonstration farms, lowland demonstration farms and innovative farms. They show a clear fall in greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions, alongside better economic…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17345"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17364,"href":"https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17345\/revisions\/17364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-green-sheep.eu\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}