Nutrient Management Week: Effective use of nutrients and minimising losses with Philip Murphy & Pat Tuohy

Philip Murphy, Co-ordinator of the Blackwater Catchment Programme, and Pat Tuohy, Senior Researcher at Teagasc, join Stuart Childs to discuss effective use of nutrients and avoiding losses.

Pat discusses recent research across 100 farms that he has completed on behalf of the Dept. of Agriculture that is showing 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 on the basis of 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. 

The return for these applied nutrients are lower and the risk of nutrient loss to water can also be greater so increased storage capacities would help take away pressure but also improve nutrient recovery subsequently.

Philip speaks about the role of buffer zones for protected waterways and says that expanded buffer zone requirements (e.g. 10 m near waterways early/late in the spreading season vs 5 m for the rest of the year), risky fields, and wet soil conditions can remove 10–25% of land area from safe spreading. Storage capacity is therefore essential to provide flexibility.

Both emphasise that adequate and indeed excess storage, allows slurry to be applied at the right time, rate, and place, improving nutrient efficiency, protecting water quality, avoiding soil damage from heavy machinery, and maximising the value of home-produced nutrients.

For more episodes from the Dairy Edge podcast go to the show page at:

https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/dairy/the-dairy-edge-podcast/

The Dairy Edge is a co-production with LastCastMedia.com