Looking at historical input data on NI farms, it must be questioned whether farmers have over-reacted to higher fertiliser prices and are now relying too heavily on concentrate feeding.

It is an issue raised by AFBI scientist and grassland specialist Dr David Johnston who points to the low levels of fertiliser being bought from July onwards in a typical year. The result is that swards are not growing close to their potential. On beef and sheep farms, average grass utilisation is estimated at 4.1t dry matter (DM) per hectare. On dairy farms, it is 7.5t DM/ha. Most productive farms can grow and utilise 10t DM/ha.

Last year fertiliser sales in NI did buck recent trends, with overall tonnages up 20% to 310,000t. However, a significant part of this increase was farmers buying later in the season ahead of expected price rises in 2017. With those price rises coming to fruition, sales might be slower again this year, but even if prices are up £50/t, grass is still by far the cheapest feed available to the livestock industry.

Back in the 1990s, the amount of fertiliser coming on to farms was consistently over 400,000t per year, and in some years over 500,000t (double that of 2015).

While some of the decrease since then can be explained by improved management of manures, the reality is that many farmers are underfeeding their swards. This is particularly the case with new reseeds.

It is a pointless exercise going to the expense of reseeding and then failing to apply sufficient nutrients, based on soil analysis, and to allow new grasses to perform.

In the beef industry in particular, a re-evaluation is required of the balance between forage and concentrate feeding.

While concentrate is required in the finishing period, the majority of weight gain should be coming from grazed grass and good quality grass silage (11.5 ME and above).