Testing soil fertility (pH, phosphate, potassium, etc.) is one of the most important jobs a farmer can do on the farm as without healthy, well-balanced soils, there is little or no foundation for high yields.

On this week’s Tillage Edge podcast, Conor O’Callaghan, from Teagasc, Dublin and Martin Ennis, a farmer from north county Dublin, join Michael Hennessy to discuss this topic.

Conor completes nutrient management plans for farmers and strives to balance the nutrients on larger farms with no more than two compound types, a high P and low P compound, so that it is practical for farmers to apply fertiliser without too many runs through the fields.

Martin Ennis started using precision soil sampling (a sample from every hectare) on his farm and has found the resulting savings in lime spreading (using a variable lime spreader) in the first year more than paid for the extra costs.

Martin is now using a variable rate fertiliser spreader and only applying P and K where needed. He uses a compound to apply the base rates of fertiliser and then precision places the final quantities of P and K, where needed, according to application maps (from the detailed soil analysis).

For more episodes and information from the Tillage Edge podcast go to:

https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/crops/the-tillage-edge-podcast/