AIM The aim of DAIRYMAN is to strengthen rural communities in the regions of North West Europe (henceforth NWE) where dairy farming is a main economic activity and a vital form of land use. It will lead to a more competitive dairy sector. stronger regional economies and an improved ecological performance within the rural area. WHY? The climatic and soil conditions in NWE regions are excellent and they have an extensive market for dairy products close at hand. The downside is that ecological sustainability is generally low:nutrient and greenhouse gas emissions are high due to the inadequate use of fertilizers. feeds and energy. This in turn inhibits the ability of rural areas in these mostly densely populated regions to deliver other services apart from food production. such as producing clean water or providing opportunities for recreation. Moreover. the poor utilisation of increasingly expensive resources threatens the economic viability of dairy farms. HOW? DAIRYMAN will strengthen rural communities by improving farm resource management in a profitable way. New ways of working and innovations will be jointly demonstrated within NWE networks of pilot commercial farms and Knowledge Transfer Centres. There will be cooperation in the development of education programmes and interregional exchange of farmers and farm advisors. DAIRYMAN will highlight examples of profitable cooperation between dairy farmers and other rural stakeholders. Public authorities will be shown how to take into account region-specific factors by implementing EU regulations in a transparent way that can be easily verified by the EU. This will in turn reduce the cost of effective regulations. leading to a high degree of acceptance by local farmers. Achievements: In the project DAIRYMAN, two spin-off projects have been identified. The first concerns the ‘Increased environmental efficiency of ruminant production systems’. It is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine and supported by Bord Bia and incorporates a Life Cycle Assessment into a quality assurance scheme. The second concerns a major international food ingredients, flavours and cheese manufacturer headquartered in Cork, Ireland, and is dedicated to providing the very best nutritional and functional ingredients, flavours and cheeses to customers. The second project has an interesting genesis. One of the dairy farmers in DAIRYMAN is a milk supplier to the international manufacturer based in Cork. In 2011, the manufacturer was visited by one of his customers (a large international buyer for supermarkets such as Tesco), and as part of the visit, the customer wanted to investigate the sustainability of the manufacturer’s milk suppliers. The farmer taking part in DAIRYMAN was able to provide comprehensive details about the different aspects of his farm’s sustainability. Subsequently, the manufacturer contacted him with a proposal that they would fund a similar study of 14 of their suppliers. Since then, the study has been expanded to 22 farms. These farms are to act as pilots to inspire other local farmers to improve the overall sustainability of their own farms. This process is supported by discussion groups, open days, and online tools that farmers can use to investigate the possibilities for improvement on their farms. From the perspective of the international manufacturer, having information such as this, which is quite favourable to the image of their products, enables them to add a unique selling proposition to their products.In terms of tangible results, the project has rolled out a package of management strategies for farms to help them to improve their carbon footprint and other aspects of sustainability. This has been achieved as part of the Irish National Quality Assurance Programme, which is supported by the Irish Food Board (Bord Bia) with input from the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc). It has resulted in increased profitability for farm businesses as farm products complying with the conditions of the Irish Quality Assurance Programme receive a premium price. The same is also happening in the Netherlands, where the introduction of a similar quality assurance mechanism is being advocated by the project’s partners.