DEAR SIR, Declan O’Brien recently reported from Solohead how James Humphreys from Teagasc finds that the herd grazing high clover swards that received no nitrogen produced €236/ha net margin.

He maintains that high clover swards have less emissions and is now proposing carrying 3.3LU/ha. No mention of any early grass issue.

UCD trials showed in 2012 that multispecies swards could outperform grass and nitrogen.

A few pages on from the Humphreys article, it says Irish farmers have bought 100,000 tonnes of nitrogen at over €1,000/tonne since the war began. I must be missing something.