Not one Silver Bullet on its own will solve our Water Quality Issue

After the very successful water quality farm walk in Donal Kavanagh’s in Baltinglas last Friday it is always good to reflect on what messgae you where delivering to the farmer audience. We had lots of questions asked about new technologies that are being researched at present but the main message was that there are measures already working to correct and improve water quality on Irish farms.

Below is a list of the steps that Donal and his fellow monitor farms in the Teagasc Tirlan Future Farm Programme are implementing at the moment. One key pillar of those steps is soil fertility. On the day I demonstrated how Donal used the pH, P and K maps to ensure the correct nutrients are being applied to the correct field at the correct time. By knowing what NPK levels that are in a 1000 gallons of slurry allows Donal to reduce his chemical NPK and this is one of the reasons why he has cut his chemical N by 33% since 2021. Encorporating clover and knowing when to reduce chemical N on these paddocks is another step taken by Donal.

It is the cumulative effect of all of these measures listed on the table above that will contribute positively towards improving water quality. Not one silver bullet is going to work. If Donal in his local catchment area carrys out all of these measures and no one else does anything, water quality will not improve. All farmers in all areas need to do the simple steps of soil fertility, clover, applying slurry at the correct time and adhering to our buffer margins, using our derogation fertiliser plans. One doing everything will achieve very little but everyone taking these simple steps together will have a greater influence on our water quality targets.

Sandra Hayes Co Coordinator of the Teagasc Tirlan Future Farm Programme.

First Published 26 June 2024