Lanarkshire Soil & Nutrient Network: Final Meeting – Event Summary
6 December 2017Third and final group meeting
This was the third and final meeting of the Lanarkshire SNN group. Those who had attended the first two meetings had commented that what they really needed to know was how to do the fertiliser calcualtions themselves for their own farms. With that in mind we had a classroom format meeting and went through the principles of nutrient budgeting and adjusting fertiliser applications to match manure and slurry applications. Local fertiliser rep Jim Mcmullen also gave a short talk on the price of fertiliser and how this is likely to become increasingly volatile.
Key take home messages:
- Soil analysis is key to carrying out an effective nutrient budget
- Taking slurry applications into account could drastically reduce your application of P& K as well as reducing Nitrogen
- Take slurry and manure value into consideration
- Spreading straights rather than compounds could help to more effectively target nutrients and reduce over or under applicaton.
- Current SRDP funding is available through the Agri-Environmental Climate Scheme to aid the construction of slurry storage. See the Rural Payments webpage for more information.
Downloads related to this event are available below.
To learn more about this group and the host farm, read the Case Study: Crumhaugh Farm, South Lanarkshire
There are a total of 12 SNN groups throughout Scotland and meetings are free to attend and open to all and you don’t have to have attended any of the previous meetings to go along. You can read meeting notes and case studies of previous SNN farms at Farming & Water Scotland‘s webpage.
- Metric / Imperial conversion tables
- This sheet contains multiple metric to imperial conversion ratios that might be of use to you and your farm business.
- Topics: Climate Change, Soils, Crofts & Small Farms, Water Management, New Entrants, Livestock, Crops and Soils and Rural Business
- Practical Guide: Nutrient budgeting I – The Benefits to your Business
- This practical guide looks at the benefits of creating and using a nutrient budget for your farm business.
- Topics: Climate Change
- Practical Guide: Nutrient Budgeting II – Getting Started
- This practical guide looks at what factors you need to consider when making a nutrient budget for your farm, fertiliser recommendations and how to get the most out of your nutrient budget.
- Topics: Climate Change
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