Speaking at the IFA Smart Farming conference on Tuesday, Dr David Wall of Teagasc discussed the fertiliser dilemmas that farmers are currently facing.

“Soil fertility is one of the key pillars of the smart farming programme,” according to David. Throughout 2016 there were nearly 200,000 soil samples taken and analysed, with only 11.6% of these optimal for fertility.

“We need to build our soil fertility to allow farmers to be more resilient in bad years,” David continued.

Listen to "Dr David Wall of Teagasc" on Spreaker.

Fertiliser for silage

Questions from farmers in attendance centred on the decisions to be made when it comes to applying fertiliser. With silage ground to be closed that little bit later this year, according to David one of the key considerations is the nitrogen applied.

“When deciding how much to put out it is important to note that approximately two units per hectare will be used up by the grass per day, so if you are going out with 100kg N/ha then you will need to leave the sward 50 days before cutting,” said David.

“This may mean pulling back a little bit on the amount of N that you might generally put out.”

Overall, David said that for silage ground farmers should aim to apply 100kg of N/ha, 20kg of P/ha and 100kg of K/ha.

When it came to grazing ground, David outlined that it would be good to get compounds out as the phosphorus will be critical to promoting growth as soil temperatures rise over the next few weeks.

Slurry

“Slurry is still valuable and 1,000 gallons of cattle slurry are worth 6:5:30 in terms of N/P/K. The last thing you want to do is waste it, so get some out on dry land and get relief from the (full) tanks,” David said.

However, one option for farmers is to hold off on slurry for silage ground now and use it instead for second-cut, as farmers would have to wait a week between putting out slurry and chemical fertiliser, which could push the potential mowing date further into June.

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