Teagasc’s annual soil fertility conference, titled ‘Optimising soil and fertiliser management for Sustainable Grassland Production’, is set to take place in Co. Kilkenny next week.

The focus of this year’s conference – as outlined in the title – is sustainable grassland production.

John Spink, head of Teagasc’s Environment, Crops and Land Use Programme, will kick off proceedings before chairing a session on the soil fertility research at Irish farmers disposal.

As part of this section, Mark Plunkett, David Wall and Noeleen MacDonald will cover the following:

Response to potassium and implications for grass silage production;
Spring nutrient advice for grassland farms;
Phosphorus management and soil fertility trends in agricultural catchments.

The second session on the day will cover putting soil fertility research into practice. This session will include presentations from Mike Egan – who’ll cover managing grass-clover swards in an intensive grass-based system – and Susanne Higgins, who’ll discuss increasing the efficiency of soil nutrient management in Northern Ireland.

The final session on the day – captioned ‘Soil Fertility Advice’ – will focus on a number of areas, including: manure and its management; long-term fertiliser use trends in Ireland and implications for sustainability; getting the most out of your stored slurry; nutrient management plans; and putting fertiliser advice into practice.

The conference will take place at the Lyrath Hotel, Kilkenny, on Wednesday (October 17). It’s set to commence at 9:15am.