Work-life balance a topic at Kilkenny farm walk

ABOVE: The Inistioge event was well attended

ASSAP
ASSAP advisors from Teagasc, Deirdre Glynn and Tirlán, Michael Hassett both spoke about the importance of looking at and applying for the new water EIP.

Any farmer interested in applying needs to have had an ASSAP farm visit first. Deirdre explained what happens during this visit and the benefits that a farmer can take from it.

Not only is potential issues with water in the farm yard looked at but the whole farm is walked and farm practices are discussed. Sometimes the farm yard is not the source of pollution so it is important to look at the whole farm.

Michael outlined how a plan of the yard is drawn up for an EIP application highlighted for the Murphy farm what elements of the EIP suit them and will benefit improving water quality on their farm.

There are 43 different elements that can be applied for in this water EIP, so something for every farmer to consider applying for.

Teagasc Climate Advisor Matt Murphy, from the Kilkenny office, outlined to how farmers could find out their own N surplus figure, also known as the N balance figure, by signing up to the Signpost programme.

Matt uses the AgNav programme which has been devised by Teagasc, ICBF and Bord Bia to calculate a farms Nitrogen surplus figure.
Matt outlined the importance of also testing your slurry to find out what N-P-K levels are in each 1000 gallons.

Tom targets his slurry to low P and K ground and this allows his use protected urea on soils that are index 3/4 for P and K.
Tom used 76% of his total N allowance as protected urea in 2024, up from 50% in 2023.

Farmers took home an overall message from this farm walk that what was good for farm profit was also beneficial for the environment and meant a good work life balance for farming families.