Despite reported issues at farm level with protected urea in 2024, Teagasc has said that research proves that the product works as well and better than CAN in some cases.

Director of Teagasc Frank O’Mara said that last year, farmers had a lot of problems with all types of fertiliser and those who used protected urea for the first time blamed it for the lack of grass growth.

Director of knowledge transfer at Teagasc Stan Lalor said: “The best-researched fertiliser product on the market today is protected urea. The data is very clear, and there’s no argument [that it works].

“Yes, last year there were weather challenges and speculations around the product itself. Our work in the midst of all that still shows that the product does what it says on the tin in terms of growing grass.”

Protected urea made up 27% of straight nitrogen use in 2024, up from just 1.6% in 2018.