Environment Webinar for Farmers
By Sean Doorley
The Teagasc Roscommon/Longford Advisory service are continuing with their very popular webinar series on the 27th January, this time with an environmental theme. Enda O’Hart and Conor Dowling, both based in the Teagasc Castlerea office, will be covering the topics of Protected Urea and Low emission slurry spreading technology respectively. On the webinar each advisor will give a presentation and participants who view the webinar can put question to each presenter.
Protected Urea
Currently urea and CAN (Calcium Ammonium Nitrate) are the 2 main types of straight Nitrogen fertiliser products used on Irish farms. The main problem with the use of regular urea is that as it breaks down large losses of ammonia gas can occur. The use of CAN leads to significant production of Nitrous Oxide N2O which is a very potent greenhouse gas. Replacing CAN with protected urea will reduce Nitrous Oxide emissions by up to 71%. Replacing urea and CAN with protected urea will lead to reduced emissions of both ammonia and nitrous oxide which represent financial gains for the farmer and a gain for the environment in terms of air quality, water quality and climate change. Enda O’Hart will outline more on the webinar.
LESS
LESS (Low emission slurry spreading) technology has become ever prevalent in recent years. Around 33% of greenhouse gases in Ireland have been attributed to agriculture, as well as 98% of ammonia emissions. LESS is a method of applying slurry to land that reduces the amount of loss of nitrogen as ammonia during the application process with the use of a trailing shoe or dribble bar. In both cases the slurry is spread close to the ground using injectors or pipes, as opposed to the traditional splash plate. A cost saving effect has also been proven, as a spring application of 3000 gals/ac (33m³/ha) using LESS can provide an extra 23kg N/ha, saving €20 per ha in chemical fertiliser. Conor Dowling will outline more on the webinar.
The online Zoom webinar will last for one hour. You can register here https://bit.ly/RNLDwebinar or follow the hashtag #RNLDwebinars on social media.