A concerted effort from every farmer will be needed in order to improve water quality in Ireland, Sandra Hayes from Teagasc has said.
“One farmer on their own in a parish will not improve water quality. It’s everybody doing a little bit more than they did before that will improve it,” Hayes told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Wicklow farmer Donal Kavanagh is one of 11 derogation dairy farmers who are part of the Teagasc-Tirlán Future Farm Programme which Sandra is co-ordinating.
While the likes of these 11 monitor farmers have made huge strides to improve water quality and are the early adopters of many different technologies, they cannot solve the issue of water quality alone, Hayes stressed.
An open day was held on Donal Kavanagh’s farm recently near Baltinglass, where over 300 farmers came to see the changes being implemented by Donal and his family. One of the major steps Donal has taken is to focus on better nutrient use efficiency (NUE), which has led to a 33% reduction in chemical nitrogen usage on the farm. He now uses 171kg chemical nitrogen per hectare and his NUE has increased by 26%. Over 65% of the nitrogen he applies now is in the form of protected urea.
This reduction in fertiliser has been achieved through improving soil pH, getting soil fertility right, incorporating more clover into swards, getting slurry tested, using LESS and also more precise fertiliser application, by using a GPS and keeping out 5m and 10m from ditches and headlands.
Donal has been admired for doing the “brilliant basics”, which are not only reducing impacts on water quality and improving the carbon footprint of the farm, they are also improving and driving milk solids and improving farm profitability. The measures he has taken are essentially having both a positive economic and environmental benefit.
“The actions that we can take now that people know about already, they are nothing new, but they are the measures that will have as big an effect on water quality going into the future - as much as any of the new technology. We need to apply the technology we have now that works,” Sandra explained.
Fertiliser plan
All 11 farmers, when getting their derogation plan – which is their farm fertiliser plan – get their pH map, a P map and a K map.
“They sit down with me then and we work out what goes where and when,” says Sandra. “If lime is required, we see if we can get it out in spring after a grazing. If we got it out, if the land was dry, in February we have 60 days before that’ll be grazed again in April, then we leave the window and see if we can get it on a first-cut or second-cut. It’s all about taking the opportunities when they arise in order to correct the deficiencies.”
Donal’s soils are index 3 and index 4, which Sandra said means the soil has the capability to hold onto more of the nutrient and excess P or K isn’t required.
“When we do spread nitrogen, in the form of protected urea, because we’ve corrected the pH above 6.3, the nitrogen works more efficiently. An old slide I had years and years ago – I called it the tubes of toothpaste. When the tubes of toothpaste are really narrow that would be when the pH is at 5.5 – if you spread a bag of 18:6:12, really what you’re spreading is 9:3:6 – you’ll potentially lose 50% of the nutrients in that bag of fertiliser. If you spread the lime, which is currently around €23/t, and the pH is corrected with that applied lime, then you spread that same bag and get 18:6:12.
“The message we’re trying to get across is that you get more nutrient efficiency from the nutrients you spread if you get your soil fertility right. That means getting soil samples, putting them in a plan and making a timescale strategy to apply those nutrients when you can get the best reward out of them. This is not sexy, it’s nothing new, but it works,” she said.
Slurry testing
Sandra highlighted the importance and benefits of getting slurry tested. This allows farmers to know the nutrient content of slurry from different tanks, which she said can often show huge variations.
“One of the farmers recently got results back and it was eight units of P and 50 units of K. If you were to apply 2,000 gallons of that – that’s your full potash requirement for silage. However, if you went with 3,000 gallons, that would be too much K and you’d have potash problems, leading to milk fever problems in the future,” she said.
“Also, testing your [own] slurry only ever needs to be done once unless you change the type of stock on the farm. Just because you have a different set of weanlings every year, doesn’t mean you have to test it every year.”
Donal, along with his wife Fiona and children, Cliona, Mark and Aoife, are farming over 340ac, around 138ac of which are rented. He is currently milking 200 cows and has recently moved from being a liquid milk supplier to spring calving. Donal’s cows are doing around 23l/cow, at 4.06% fat and 3.53% protein, while getting 3kg of meal in the parlour.
Current grass growth rates are at 71kg DM/ha, with demand currently at 42kg DM/ha.
“I’d highly recommend getting involved in something like the Future Farm programme to anyone. Initially, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but what I’ve learned is that what you can measure, you can improve,” Donal said.
“Four years ago sustainability was a big word – I can achieve all these things and still be sustainable and even more profitable than before,” he added.
In brief
Donal is in the fourth year of Farm Future programme.200 cows milking on 340ac.33% cut in fertiliser use.26% better nutrient use efficiency.70% of soils pH 6.2+.34% of soils are optimum for pH, P and K.
A concerted effort from every farmer will be needed in order to improve water quality in Ireland, Sandra Hayes from Teagasc has said.
“One farmer on their own in a parish will not improve water quality. It’s everybody doing a little bit more than they did before that will improve it,” Hayes told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Wicklow farmer Donal Kavanagh is one of 11 derogation dairy farmers who are part of the Teagasc-Tirlán Future Farm Programme which Sandra is co-ordinating.
While the likes of these 11 monitor farmers have made huge strides to improve water quality and are the early adopters of many different technologies, they cannot solve the issue of water quality alone, Hayes stressed.
An open day was held on Donal Kavanagh’s farm recently near Baltinglass, where over 300 farmers came to see the changes being implemented by Donal and his family. One of the major steps Donal has taken is to focus on better nutrient use efficiency (NUE), which has led to a 33% reduction in chemical nitrogen usage on the farm. He now uses 171kg chemical nitrogen per hectare and his NUE has increased by 26%. Over 65% of the nitrogen he applies now is in the form of protected urea.
This reduction in fertiliser has been achieved through improving soil pH, getting soil fertility right, incorporating more clover into swards, getting slurry tested, using LESS and also more precise fertiliser application, by using a GPS and keeping out 5m and 10m from ditches and headlands.
Donal has been admired for doing the “brilliant basics”, which are not only reducing impacts on water quality and improving the carbon footprint of the farm, they are also improving and driving milk solids and improving farm profitability. The measures he has taken are essentially having both a positive economic and environmental benefit.
“The actions that we can take now that people know about already, they are nothing new, but they are the measures that will have as big an effect on water quality going into the future - as much as any of the new technology. We need to apply the technology we have now that works,” Sandra explained.
Fertiliser plan
All 11 farmers, when getting their derogation plan – which is their farm fertiliser plan – get their pH map, a P map and a K map.
“They sit down with me then and we work out what goes where and when,” says Sandra. “If lime is required, we see if we can get it out in spring after a grazing. If we got it out, if the land was dry, in February we have 60 days before that’ll be grazed again in April, then we leave the window and see if we can get it on a first-cut or second-cut. It’s all about taking the opportunities when they arise in order to correct the deficiencies.”
Donal’s soils are index 3 and index 4, which Sandra said means the soil has the capability to hold onto more of the nutrient and excess P or K isn’t required.
“When we do spread nitrogen, in the form of protected urea, because we’ve corrected the pH above 6.3, the nitrogen works more efficiently. An old slide I had years and years ago – I called it the tubes of toothpaste. When the tubes of toothpaste are really narrow that would be when the pH is at 5.5 – if you spread a bag of 18:6:12, really what you’re spreading is 9:3:6 – you’ll potentially lose 50% of the nutrients in that bag of fertiliser. If you spread the lime, which is currently around €23/t, and the pH is corrected with that applied lime, then you spread that same bag and get 18:6:12.
“The message we’re trying to get across is that you get more nutrient efficiency from the nutrients you spread if you get your soil fertility right. That means getting soil samples, putting them in a plan and making a timescale strategy to apply those nutrients when you can get the best reward out of them. This is not sexy, it’s nothing new, but it works,” she said.
Slurry testing
Sandra highlighted the importance and benefits of getting slurry tested. This allows farmers to know the nutrient content of slurry from different tanks, which she said can often show huge variations.
“One of the farmers recently got results back and it was eight units of P and 50 units of K. If you were to apply 2,000 gallons of that – that’s your full potash requirement for silage. However, if you went with 3,000 gallons, that would be too much K and you’d have potash problems, leading to milk fever problems in the future,” she said.
“Also, testing your [own] slurry only ever needs to be done once unless you change the type of stock on the farm. Just because you have a different set of weanlings every year, doesn’t mean you have to test it every year.”
Donal, along with his wife Fiona and children, Cliona, Mark and Aoife, are farming over 340ac, around 138ac of which are rented. He is currently milking 200 cows and has recently moved from being a liquid milk supplier to spring calving. Donal’s cows are doing around 23l/cow, at 4.06% fat and 3.53% protein, while getting 3kg of meal in the parlour.
Current grass growth rates are at 71kg DM/ha, with demand currently at 42kg DM/ha.
“I’d highly recommend getting involved in something like the Future Farm programme to anyone. Initially, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but what I’ve learned is that what you can measure, you can improve,” Donal said.
“Four years ago sustainability was a big word – I can achieve all these things and still be sustainable and even more profitable than before,” he added.
In brief
Donal is in the fourth year of Farm Future programme.200 cows milking on 340ac.33% cut in fertiliser use.26% better nutrient use efficiency.70% of soils pH 6.2+.34% of soils are optimum for pH, P and K. 
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