Devenish is an innovative farming and food company, delivering sustainable, nutritional solutions to proactively improve primary producer margins, human and environmental health simultaneously. While firmly rooted in the UK and Ireland, Devenish has a global footprint with ten manufacturing sites across the UK, Ireland, USA, Turkey and Uganda and exports to over 35 countries worldwide.
The Devenish strategy - 'One Health, From Soil to Society'
With a growing world population set to reach 9 billion by 2050, sustainable food production is very important. As such, the Devenish strategy, ‘One Health, From Soil to Society’ focuses on the importance of optimising nutrient utilisation in soil, plant, animal, environmental and human health, as key and interlinked components of the value chain. To do so Devenish believes in taking a landscape approach to sustainability; agriculture should fit into the local landscape and compliment it. For us the key is to measure and record all aspects of the landscape from the soil, crop types, water, trees and hedgerows and the native wildlife that are present. With this information we aim to optimise agricultural production by calling on the use of the latest technology in a manner that improves the local environment, creates a viable income for farmers and presents the local landscape as a usable and enjoyable amenity to local communities.
The Devenish Lands at Dowth:
Located in the UNESCO world heritage site of Brú na Bóinne in Ireland, and home to some of Ireland’s first farmers some 6,000 years ago, lies the group’s Global Innovation Centre, known as ‘The Devenish Lands at Dowth’. This key platform is being used to learn the lessons from the past, and using these, help shape the future of sustainable farming and food production.
The Devenish performance house models livestock production. By mimicking commercial reality, the model allows trials to be delivered to assess the statistical significance of innovative nutritional products and solutions. The group invests £30m on R&D and innovation annually, to underpin innovative products and solutions with sound practical science.
The 3-Step Soil Improvement Programme:
The value chain begins with soil and to produce sustainable food, all levels in the value chain must be sustainable. The Devenish 3-step Soil Improvement Programme, delivered in partnership with Thomson & Joseph, optimises nutrient availability from soil to grow more forage and higher quality forage. The key nutrients in the soil are then passed on to the animal, via feed, which ultimately impacts positively on both animal and consumer health.
Results from this programme have shown a dramatic reduction in molybdenum by participating farmers of 51% in just 3 years, significantly impacting on the health outcomes of the cattle eating these forages. The Devenish Lands at Dowth allow Devenish to deploy new technologies to put the grazing platform on a rising plane of grass output. This has been done by using precision application of lime, phosphorus and potassium combined with the use of a rapid plate meter fitted to the ATV to measure grass growth weekly. These two activities combined with proactive grazing management have resulted in an increase of grass yields from 7.2tonnes/ha DM in 2015 to 8.1 tonnes/ha DM in 2017 from the existing swards, thus protecting the current biodiversity at the Devenish Lands at Dowth.
Reducing greenhouse gases from the ruminant landscape:
The world’s first calculation of on-farm carbon sequestration by trees and hedges was delivered by Devenish, in partnership with Teagasc. Using LiDAR technology, data have shown that their hedges in Dowth sequester 50% more carbon than trees. As the trees on this 6,000-year-old landscape are generally fully mature, their younger and faster-growing counterparts offer huge potential to further mitigate emissions from the ruminant landscape. Devenish is currently in the middle of a project to assess and measure the carbon content of our soils at Dowth using the same technology.
Every 5 years Devenish will survey the Lands at Dowth with LiDAR to measure carbon sequestration in the soil. This will then be taken into account to show how taking a landscape approach to sustainability can offset Greenhouse Gas emissions from the ruminant enterprise, with sequestration that has taken place on the research platform in soil, tree and hedgerow growth. This technology is being used in the Congo. Sponsored by the German government, in partnership with WWF, carbon credits have been secured for 460,000 hectares in the Congo.
Boosting animal immunity:
Devenish has been at the forefront of delivering nutritional products and solutions to boost animal’s immune systems. Key emphasis is placed on optimal nutrition and environmental factors to boost the immune system, this can help to reduce the requirement for medicines and antibiotics.
The Future is Bright:
Devenish believes that we must improve soil, plant, animal, human and environmental health simultaneously to develops and link the whole agricultural supply chain to the benefit of all who depend on it.
For more information, visit www.devenishnutrition.com