“The country’s soil fertility is in a shockingly poor state.

"Yet we want to produce more and more and drive output,” highlighted Teagasc’s John Maher, Grass10 programme coordinator.

“We are not in a good place. Our parents and grandparents made a big effort in the area of soil fertility 30 or 40 years ago. The reality is that we import half the amount of phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) now versus in their day.

John was speaking at a Grass10 farm walk on the Stanley farm on the outskirts of Thurles.

Brothers Raymond and Gilbert farm over 300 acres with Raymond’s son Dwayne here and plan to calve 120 sucklers, take in 120 dairy-beef calves for rearing and potentially finish suckler bulls as the programme progresses.

Earlier this year, we saw how the trio had transformed a large field adjacent to their main yard. The land was completely reseeded and went from one to 10 divisions.

Soil fertility

Soil fertility is one of the key areas of the Grass10 programme, along with grassland management, infrastructure and reseeding.

The programme aims to get farms utilising 10t of grass DM/ha and graze paddocks 10 times annually.

“We are currently grazing paddocks around five times annually and filling the gaps with silage and meal.

“Well, grass is three times cheaper than silage and five times cheaper than meal,” Maher said.

Those in attendance were told that to achieve 10 grazings they needed four things: paddock systems, ryegrass swards, good soil fertility and a proper autumn closing planner.

Soil fertility drew the most discussion on the day. Maher outlined that although the majority of livestock farms in the country are poor in terms of soil fertility, sheep farms fare best.

Local adviser Joe Hand said that, according to soil test results, 64% of Tipperary soils are lime-deficient.

“If you go out with a bag of CAN (27 units) on to a soil with a very low lime status, nine of those units go up into the sky and are lost.”

The best time to spread lime was after a silage cut and patrons were encouraged to make an arrangement with their silage contractors.

MOP up

The crowd was advised to look to Muriate of Potash (MOP, 0-0-50) as a means for correcting low K status. There is no K calendar restriction and one bag/acre should raise soil index value by one increment.

“You spread this stuff in the back end, after closing ideally. It is like Red Bull, it gives a massive rush of K. This could be a precursor for grass tetany. So, early in the year, when animals are out, use your slurry which is a good source of K but much slower releasing,”John Maher said.

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