Silage season has arrived bringing with it hopes and prayers for good weather. With the precious first cut underway in parts of the country, thoughts will now be turning to preparations for second and possibly third or even fourth cut, as building good quality fodder stocks will be essential to buffer the unknown winter that lies ahead.
Managing rising input costs remains an ongoing challenge and whilst farmers will no doubt be seeking to maximise all available resources, including slurries and manures, understanding the nutrient limitations of manures is important because placing too much reliance on them at the expense of adequately supplying crop nutrient requirements could be a false economy. Over application of manures is also not the answer and could lead to undesirable environmental outcomes. Good management and careful planning are therefore needed to strike the right balance.
Measurement is at the heart of good management and as such, soil testing and analysis should form the basis of all nutrient management decisions. DAERA recently launched a new Soil Nutrient Health Scheme which will provide farmers with soil analysis results and farm maps detailing the nutrient levels of each field with the intention that all fields in Northern Ireland will be sampled.
In addition to providing information on the nutrient levels in each field, the farm maps will also be capable of identifying fields prone to nutrient loss via run-off to waterways which will enable better decision making on where and how to apply nutrient. Nutrient loss is both an economic and an environmental problem which should not be overlooked at farm level.
Earlier this year the NI Assembly passed its first ever Climate Change Bill and whilst there was some relief that common sense eventually prevailed so that the targets set reflect the science and circumstances of NI, the challenge of achieving these targets remains. Whilst efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at farm level will continue, it is also important for farmers to be acknowledged for the unique role that their farms can play in sequestering carbon, thereby offsetting some of these emissions. To date, data has been lacking to be able to properly account for this, but it is hoped that the new Scheme will help to create a baseline by estimating the amount of carbon stored in farmland soils, hedgerows and trees.
DAERA’s Soil Nutrient Health Scheme is to be rolled out in stages over the next four years by geographical zone, starting with Zone 1 which covers most of County Down and some surrounding areas. Farmers located in Zone 1 will be contacted directly by AFBI who are administering the scheme.