Total expenditure for the National Soil Sampling and Analysis Programme reached €2.7 million in 2023, according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
The programme was completed in the first half of 2023, with applications surpassing 9,000, of which 7,000 were approved to participate.
Participation for the programme is voluntary and it is open to all regions and farming enterprises.
Applicants were accepted on a first come, first served basis, ensuring maximum spread over geographic regions and farm enterprise types.
A total of 7,500 farms were sampled with an excess of 95,000 standard soil samples taken for these farms.
Information collected through the programme is used to enable better monitoring of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at a national and regional level.
The department said that the continuation of the soil sampling programme will “inform future policies”.
Soil sample results provide the basis for lime, manure and fertiliser applications required.
Soil
As part of the the department’s control programme for fertiliser and lime, in 2023, a total of 282 samples were taken at manufacturers’ premises – 192 fertiliser samples and 90 lime samples).
In the department’s annual report for 2023, it was revealed that 569 individual analyses were carried out for fertilisers. An out-of-tolerance was recorded for around 11% of the cases.
A total of 352 individual lime analyses were carried out for lime and around 8 % of these were out of tolerance.
Ground limestone usage was down by almost 27% on the previous year to 1,019,002 tonnes, with 49 limestone quarries in operation.
Since the launch of the National Fertiliser Database (NFD) in July 2023, there have been registrations from 120,054 farmers and 750 non-farmers as Professional Fertiliser End Users.
In addition, 1685 farmers have registered as Fertiliser Economic Operators, to be able to import fertiliser or move fertiliser from one herd number to another.