1 August 2025

Protected urea: reducing emissions while sustaining production

Using protected urea (PU) in place of calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) is an important greenhouse gas emission reduction technology for the Irish agriculture sector.

Protected urea use has been steadily growing, from about 10% in 2021 to 26% in 2024, but this needs to increase significantly if agriculture is going to meet its climate carbon reduction targets by 2030.

Challenging weather conditions in 2024 led to questions from farmers and the agricultural sector regarding yield performance of PU. A long-term fertiliser nitrogen (N) field trial at Teagasc Johnstown Castle has been evaluating the use of PU fertilisers using NBPTurea, NBPT+NPPTurea and 2-NPTurea, compared to standard urea and CAN for over 10 years.

The results showed similar yields were achieved using the tested protected urea products and for CAN – including in 2024. In addition, since 2019, field trials have been completed, evaluating PU in a grazing situation over a wide range of sites. Results from these trials show the reliable performance of PU with consistent grass production compared to standard N fertilisers.

These results were widely communicated to the agricultural industry by Teagasc staff to give reassurance to farmers using PU products, including at the Teagasc Beef and Dairy National Conferences. PU alone has the capacity to reduce total farm carbon equivalent emissions by between 4 and 8% in conventional livestock farming enterprises.

Authors: Mark Plunkett, Patrick Forrestal, John B. Murphy, David Wall, Dermot Forrestal, Francis Quigley, Brian McCarthy and Áine Murray
Contact: mark.plunkett@teagasc.ie
Funding: Teagasc core funding; Teagasc Walsh Scholars Programme
Impact Pathway: Technology Development & Adoption