Soil testing Your land is the basis of your income and soil testing remains as critical today as it did a generation ago. Taking good soil tests is paramount to helping your land to be productive. You cannot compensate for low soil fertility by applying more fertiliser in the year of production. Soil fertility and health must be built up over time and such land will always produce higher yield potential.

Fertiliser application is always about building or maintaining soil fertility on owned land. But this must be balanced with lime or pH which is still the most important single input. You need soil tests to get this right for either winter or spring crops. There is little point in testing a field where fertiliser was recently applied.

A soil test should not be more than four years old so get tests taken as quickly as possible so as to have the results back in time for fertiliser and lime application as in springtime. Lime and proper pH remain the key to unlocking nutrient availability and the potential of your land.

EPA

Protein crops can no longer be used to provide EFA for tillage farmers. This could result in problems for a small number of farmers but it is hoped that higher EFA allowances for open drains and adding hedge buffer zones will more than offset the loss of protein crops for those who are tight on EFA.

Diary dates

ITLUS is holding its annual conference on Thursday of this week (7 December) focusing on the non-metal tools of tillage farming. The CAFRE/UAS/UFU conference takes place in Greenmount on Thursday 11 January and the Teagasc National Tillage Conference takes place in Kilkenny on Wednesday 31 January.

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