The key to decent pasture production in 2025 starts with collecting soil samples and assessing the soil fertility of your farm before the busy period takes your attention.
Soil sampling is the first step to improving your soil fertility on your farm, and from the middle of December to the start of January is seen as the ideal time to take soil samples.
During these times, no nutrients have been applied to the land since the start of the closing period in autumn, besides maybe the odd load of soiled water.
Getting the soil auger out and carrying out soil samples will help establish the requirement for essential soil nutrients to grow grass such as lime, phosphorus (P), and potassium (K), making it a crucial stage in managing soil fertility.
Soil samples
By understanding the levels of nutrients in your soil, it can make farmer’s life a lot simpler when improving soil fertility which can potentially increase grass production by up to 25%.
Knowing your soil fertility of each paddock on the farm is the starting point for controlling your fertiliser costs, which is crucial, considering the price of it and the need to control water quality in 2025.
Farmers can use their soil sample results to identify the fields that may need lime, and that may have to be targeted with slurry the most in order to reduce fertiliser inputs.
According to Teagasc, on a national level soil fertility is poor, with only 18% of grassland reaching optimal levels which consists of a soil pH of over 6.2, and soil P and K indexes of over 3 or 4.
The best way to improve this is by taking soil samples and updating your nutrient management plan, and if soil samples have not been taken in years, now is the best time to go out with an auger.
There is only a number of days and weeks until slurry and chemical fertiliser are spread on the land which will give less accurate results if samples are collected when they are spread.
Farmers with a grassland stocking rate of over 130kg organic N/ha are now required to have valid soil samples (> four-years-old) if they wish to purchase chemical phosphorus fertiliser, or import organic manures.
How to collect soil samples is as follows:
- Collect soil samples at the right time of the year;
- The area sampled should be 2-4ha;
- Use a suitable soil corer;
- Sampling depth should be top 10cm of soil;
- Take 20 cores/samples in a ‘W’ shape, ideally;
- Wait three to six months after P and K applications;
- Leave a gap of two years after lime is applied.
A soil sample will only cost approximately €1.23/ha and is the most crucial step in getting the absolute best out of your land during the grazing season and to ensure a number of quality cuts of silage for winter supplies.