Teagasc launched its new fertility mapping service for farmers called NMP-Online at the Soil Fertility Conference in Clonmel Co Tipperary. The NMP-Online (nutrient management planning) is a user-friendly tool for farmers that will help them identify the parts of the farm that are low in fertility and also give recommendations for rates of application for phosphorus, potassium and lime.

Pat Murphy from Teagasc, Johnstown Castle, explained that this will be a far more effective tool for communicating to farmers what their soil test results mean to them and where they should be targeting their slurry and compound fertilisers compared with older systems Teagasc used in the past.

With the new system, farmers will be able to print out colour-coded maps indicating the soil fertility combined with nutrient application recommendations. Pat said that the NMP online will be available to all agricultural professionals for use on Derogation and Glas nutrient management plans. Mark Plunkett says this system will be crucial to help farmers increase their soil fertility levels and hopes it will improve the current statistic that 90% of grassland soils are sub-optimal in terms of fertility.

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