Sustainability

Think Green

• Food Wastage is kept to a minimum by feeding any suitable leftover food from visitors to the pigs.

• Fallen branches & Christmas trees are collected and mulched to be used for animal  bedding etc.

• Fertiliser spreading is kept to a minimum & any fertiliser that is spread is protected. Protected urea achieves the benefits of protecting nitrogen (N) loss and reducing greenhouse gas emissions while yielding as well as CAN (Calcium Ammonia Nitrate) over the growing season.

• All our paddocks are established grassland pasture which sequesters massive amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. Grasslands can absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) during growth of grass plants and store it in different tissues. Above ground biomass (grass) is eaten by grazing animals and the carbon will eventually return to the soil as manure or to the atmosphere via enteric fermentation. The remaining grass and roots will eventually decompose and the carbon will then be stored in the soil.

• Established grassland is also very beneficial for soil quality as soils with high carbon generally have better soil structure, water holding capacity and provide more nutrients.

• Our stocking rate is quite low in Bunratty. This allows us to limit damaging impacts our animals have on soil including compaction, destruction of soil structure and loss of vegetation. These impacts can reduce infiltration of water into the soil, resulting in pooling and water logging with consequent impacts of denitrification and nitrous oxide emissions.