Teagasc Grass10 Nutrient Management Week took place from 19–23 January and was packed with a full programme that focused on nutrient management on farms in spring and throughout the year ahead.
Nutrient Management Week was part of the continued focus of the Teagasc Grass10 Campaign, along with Farming for Water, to improve nutrient use management and efficiency at farm level. AIB, Grassland Agro, Irish Farmers Journal, FBD and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine support the Grass10 Campaign.
Topics covered included: how to maximise slurry nitrogen in spring, use of technologies such as GPS and early fertiliser to maximise grass growth; fertiliser timing, rates and optimising soil fertility; nutrient management to improve water quality; and getting your fertiliser spreader ready for 2026
Effective use of nutrients and minimising losses
On Monday, January 19, Philip Murphy, Coordinator of the Blackwater Catchment Programme, and Pat Tuohy, Senior Researcher at Teagasc, joined Stuart Childs to discuss effective use of nutrients and avoiding losses as part of the Dairy Edge podcast.
Pat discussed recent research across 100 farms that he has completed on behalf of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine that shows slurry production rates are about 20% higher than the current regulatory assumptions (≈0.4 m³/cow/week vs 0.33m3).
This means many farms that may currently be compliant based on the current regulations, do not have sufficient physical storage, leading to pressure to spread slurry at less-than-ideal times.
Both Pat and Philip talk about how this situation is forcing poor nutrient management decisions as when storage runs tight, farmers end up spreading slurry in poor weather/soil conditions.
For full insights, listen to the full episode below:
Managing slurry to drive grass growth
On Tuesday, January 20, Grass10 Campaign Manager, John Maher spoke to Michael Carroll from Co. Limerick. Michael was one of the joint winners of the Nutrient Management category at the 2023 Sustainable Grassland Farmer of the Year awards.
He won this award for his understanding of managing slurry on his farm to drive grass growth and reduce his chemical N inputs and today he shares his way of looking at and managing slurry to reduce his chemical N input without compromising on the growth required to feed his herd as much grass as possible.
To hear Michael’s story, listen in to the podcast below:
The timing of applications to maximise return
On Wednesday, January 21, John Maher discussed about timing of applications to maximise their return, the rates to apply to find the balance between driving growth and mitigating potential environmental losses and how getting soil fertility right improves the return from applied nutrients thus being an important factor in minimising potential nutrient loss also.
Additionally, he spoke to Mike Ahern who is farming near Ballyduff, Co. Waterford. Mike was the winner of the Nutrient Management category as well as the overall winner of that Grassland Farmer of the Year Competition in 2024.
Listen to the full episode below:
How to get full value from the fertiliser allowances on your farm
On Thursday, January 22, John Maher was again joined by Mike Ahearn, who detailed the importance of driving growth with early fertiliser applications on his farm, as well as how to use GPS technology to minimise losses to ensure you get full value from the fertiliser allowances on your farm.
Listen in below:
Setting up the fertiliser spreader
For the final instalment on Friday, January 23, John Maher was joined by John Corbett from Grassland Agro, where the discussion centred on setting up the fertiliser spreader correctly to ensure accurate and even placement of fertiliser.
Listen to the full episode below: