Protected urea made up just 16% of nitrogen sales in the nine months from last October to the end of June, Teagasc director Professor Frank O’Mara told last week’s Agricultural Science Association (ASA) annual conference.

Outlining the challenges posed by the legally-binding carbon ceilings for agriculture, O’Mara told the conference that meeting the 25% reduction in emissions will require a “whole-of-industry response”.

However, the slow adoption of key emissions-related actions specified by Teagasc’s marginal abatement cost curve (MACC) illustrated the inherent difficulties associated with changing established management practices at farm level.

Protected urea

Although O’Mara pointed out that usage of protected urea had increased by 47%, his presentation showed that less than one quarter of specialist dairy farmers are using protected urea, while the figure for cattle farms was under 5%.

The percentage of chemical nitrogen that is spread as protected urea also remains small. It accounts for just 7% of total usage on specialist dairy farms, with the figure falling to 2% on cattle holdings.

Slurry spreading

More positive trends have been recorded on slurry spreading. Close to three-quarters of specialist dairy farms use low emissions slurry spreading (LESS) equipment, compared with just one quarter of cattle farmers.

Around two-thirds of the slurry spread on specialist dairy farms is done using LESS equipment, with the corresponding figure for cattle farms being around one quarter.

O’Mara’s presentation also confirmed that progress was being made in terms of clover adoption, with almost 18% of ground reseeded on specialist dairy farms using enhanced clover mixes to some extent over the last three years. A further 7.6% of dairy farmers over-sowed with clover.

However, just 6.2% of cattle farmers used clover mixes, with a further 3.3% over-sowing with clover.

O’Mara described climate change as the “challenge of our time” and cautioned that the reduced emissions being sought of agriculture will “require a massive change in direction” by farmers.