Nutrient management planning

AgriSearch is to investigate the role of emerging technologies in nutrient management planning (NMP) on farms.

The organisation has secured funding to this end through Northern Ireland’s Tenfold NetZero Accelerator programme.

The programme is supported by Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and Digital Catapult which is the UK authority on advanced digital technology.

NMP is fundamental to economic and environmentally sustainable farming systems by helping farmers match inputs of nutrients (in fertiliser and organic materials) to crop demand which minimises losses to the environment.

For ruminant livestock farmers in Northern Ireland, effective nutrient management planning can minimise the use of manufactured fertilisers, which are both expensive and have a high carbon footprint.

NMP also allows farmers to make best use of organic manures and legumes, fully accounting for the nutrients they supply, according to AgriSearch.

It is an approach to farming that optimises the production of grazed and conserved grass and other forages.

NMP acts to minimise losses to the environment in the form of nitrate and phosphorus to water and ammonia and nitrous oxide to air. It also ensures compliance with environmental legislation and farm quality assurance standards.

The programme is expected to give farmers in AgriSearch’s Beacon Farm Network an opportunity to gain access to expertise in advanced digital technologies that they would never formally have access to and improve nutrient management on their farms.

AgriSearch commissioned a review into NMP tools last year, which concluded that the current calculators available to farmers are cumbersome, not user-friendly and difficult to interpret.

A changing climate coupled with volatile fertiliser prices means that effective NMP is essential to improve farm resilience and increase farm profitability, according to the organisation.

Using advanced digital technologies, AgriSearch aims to deliver a proof-of-concept which would demonstrate how the use of emerging technologies can generate easy-to-use farm NMP advice from large datasets such as the results of the Soil Nutrient Health Scheme.

Next steps

Following a tender and selection process, a technology solution provider will be appointed shortly with work on the proof-of-concept beginning this month (July 2024).

AgriSearch was formed in 1997 to provide a mechanism through which beef, dairy and sheep farmers could have direct involvement in production orientated research.

Funds contributed to AgriSearch are used to commission research into the improvement and development of beef, sheep and dairy farming.

Its guiding principle is to provide practical benefit for primary producers to reduce costs, improve performance, drive innovation and improve welfare.