Tillage farmers in north-east urged to join new Soil Cycle project
Teagasc has put out the call for more farmers and contractors in the north-east to join up for its new, four-year Soil Cycle project.
The initiative has been designed to quantify the benefits of applying animal slurries and the digestate from anaerobic digestion plants to growing winter cereal crops during mid- March.
Oak Park-based Seán Óg McCormack outlined the principles associated with the Soil Cycle initiative at a recent Teagasc Spring Tillage Workshop in Dundalk.
He explained that for the purposes of the project, Teagasc will be dividing up the country into three regions: the south, the south-east, and the north-east.
McCormack said: “We already have a full complement of farmers and slurry contractors committed to Soil Cycle in the south and south-east.
"However, we are two tillage farmers short of our requirement in the north-east.
“The commitment of at least one additional contractor would also prove invaluable."
The Teagasc representative highlighted that participating farmers and contractors "will be paid an agreed fee".
Soil Cycle
Soil Cycle will run from 2026 through to 2029, and is aimed at delivering a granular assessment of the impact made by the application of slurries to winter cereal crops in mid-March.
This will pave the way for making reductions in applications of chemical nitrogen later in the season.
McCormack outlined that under the project, slurry will be applied to growing crops using a dribble bar linked to an umbilical system.
“We want to work with farmers who have applied slurry to growing crops in the past," he said.
“We know that putting organic manures on to crop land in the autumn does not work in terms of maximising the value of these crop nutrient sources.
“Soil Cycle has been designed to determine the full impact of putting these organic manures at a time when active crop growth is taking place.”
The remit of the new project involved the detailed nutritional analysis of the applied slurries and the requisite evaluations of final crop yields and grain quality.
Teagasc has joined forced with Agricultural Development and Advisory Service (ADAS) in the UK to make this happen.
“Yield mapping will be used to develop bespoke crop nutrient management plans," McCormack continued.
"At this stage, we are working on the basis that spring applications of slurry will meet crops’ potash and phosphate requirements.
“Farmers and contractors will be supplied with yield monitors, if they do not already have access to this technology.”
According to the Teagasc representative, results generated by the Soil Cycle project will be published on an annual basis.
