Water quality trends and manure management central topics of upcoming open day
The Agricultural Catchments Programme will host a major open day in Timoleague, Co. Cork, on Friday, May 12th.
The final event of Agricultural Catchments Week, water quality in the Timoleague Catchment has been monitored for over a decade. The catchment is located south of the village of Timoleague near Clonakilty in Co. Cork. It is 758ha in area and 85% of the land is in grass with 4% tillage. Dairying is the predominant land use in this catchment and the stocking rate is among the highest in the country.
The west Cork area, where the catchment is located, is representative of the most intensively farmed dairying areas in Ireland. It has the highest concentration of dairy farms in the country, with large herds producing milk using an intensive, grass-based system.
Since 2019, the programme has observed a reduction in Nitrate – N concentrations leaving this dairy agricultural catchment.
Topics for discussion
Attendees at the open day will be given an introduction to the programme and the Timoleague Catchment. Other topics of note include:
- Organic manure management and soil fertility trends;
- Soil solution monitoring;
- Farmers' opinion of NAP / Derogation regulation changes;
- Water monitoring infrastructure and monthly sampling;
- Water quality trends;
- Kick sampling and macro invertebrate demonstration.
When and where?
The open day takes place on May 12th from 11am to 1.30pm. The location is 500m on the Barryroe side of Staunton Foods, Timoleague, Co. Cork.
Agricultural Catchments Week
The Timoleague Open Day is part of the Agricultural Catchments Week 2023, which is running from 5th to 12th May. The ACP is running a dedicated week of activities showcasing its research and advisory programme.
The theme for the week is ‘A Living Lab Monitoring Water Quality and Gaseous Emissions.’ There is a mix of in-person events, written articles and podcasts. Details of the activities are available here.
Acknowledgement
The ACP is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and staff have been working with more than 300 farmers across six catchments in Ireland for over 10 years.
