A huge proportion of Irish farm soils have below par fertility, through soil sampling and proper practises farmers have a huge opportunity to address this imbalance, improve soil fertility, improve yields and in turn economic productivity on the farm.
FRS, Cahir offer a professional and one of their experienced soil technicians will visit your farm to take a sample of your fields. It will be sent to a lab to be tested and results returned to you as quick as possible.
This will give you a reading for the PH level of the soil as well as the P & K level. Results are usually back between 10 to 14 days.
Contact FRS on 052-7441598 to arrange a test and reap the benefits.
USING THE RESULTS
Ideally you want your PH to be around 6.3 for grassland or 6.5 for cereals. Soils with low or high pH will reduce the release of NPK nutrients. Spreading of lime is the most cost effective way to address the imbalance.
Autumn and winter are the recommended times to spread lime as it avoids the contamination with urea and cattle slurry therefore reduces potential issues with N loss.
Once the ph balance of the soil is determined, you can look at getting your P & K levels up to scratch. If the ph level isn’t right these elements can be leeched from the soil.
There is an index for these results between 1 and 4. You should aim to be 3 on this index.
The field with lower indexes should be targeted first and should have slurry and farm manure applied to raise the P& K indexes.
