LESS and protected urea use on Irish farms
Representative of almost 88,000 dairy, beef, sheep and tillage farms nationally, the recently published suite of National Farm Survey (NFS) enterprise factsheets shed light on the levels of protected urea and Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) use on Irish farms last year.
The NFS Single Suckling Enterprise Factsheet shows that more suckler farmers used protected urea in 2024 as opposed to 2023, with the proportion increasing from 14% to 28%. What’s more, the factsheet also quantifies nitrogen fertiliser use per hectare on these farms, with 77% of suckler farms spreading less than 80kg of nitrogen fertiliser per hectare.
Over the same period, the number of suckler farms using LESS increased from 34% in 2023 to 42% in 2024. However, the adoption rate of LESS remains well below the target of 75%, as set in the Teagasc 2027 Road Map for the beef sector.
For more on the National Farm Survey Single Suckling Enterprise Factsheet 2024 (PDF), visit here.
Additionally, and representing over 15,000 dairy farms nationally, the Teagasc NFS 2024 Dairy Enterprise Factsheet shows that the proportion of dairy farms applying protected urea and using LESS spreading techniques increased from 2023 to 2024. On dairy farms represented in the National Farm Survey, slurry was spread via LESS on 85% of holdings in 2024, while the percentage of farms using protected urea rose to 70% in 2024.
In addition to the number of farms using protected urea increasing, the NFS factsheet also shows that protected urea accounted for a greater share of the total nitrogen fertiliser applied on Irish dairy farms in 2024, while 56% of dairy farms represented used less than 170kg per hectare of nitrogen.
For more on the National Farm Survey 2024 Dairy Enterprise Factsheet (PDF), visit here.
Moving onto sheep, the Teagasc NFS 2024 Mid-Season Lowland Lamb Enterprise Factsheet shows that the percentage of sheep farms applying protected urea continued to increase, with 26% of farms in 2024 using this product (up from 14% in 2023). In terms of chemical nitrogen applications, the factsheet also reports that 79% of sheep enterprises with a mid-season lowland lamb enterprise applied less than 85kg of fertiliser nitrogen per hectare in 2024, down from 88% in the year previous. Data on slurry application using LESS was first recorded in 2021, and the factsheet indicates that 47% of farms with a mid-season lamb enterprise applied slurry via LESS in 2024.
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