Teagasc has advised farmers to cull the poorest performing 5% of their herd or flock to reduce their fertiliser costs without impacting on farm margins.

The advice was presented in Teagasc’s 2022 roadmap on fertiliser use.

“Cull the poorest performing 5% of animals to reduce feed and fertiliser requirements, while maintaining farm profits,” was one of the 10 steps listed by the agency on its advice sheet for saving on grassland fertiliser bills.

“Reducing stocking rates by 5% could help reduce fertiliser applications by 5% and 10%,” it said.

Head office

The head of Teagasc’s advisory department, Stan Lalor, echoed this message to the Irish Farmers Journal, when speaking at the launch of the booklet and Teagasc’s Soil, Nutrients and Fertiliser campaign on Wednesday.

When asked about the rising costs of carrying unproductive animals in a herd, Lalor responded: “Of course that puts pressure on what is the breakeven cost per animal and what animals are going to deliver in terms of output, productivity, efficiency to cover that breakeven cost.

“And there is always a question there in terms of the animals that do not do that – in terms of making space for better animals or, you know, not covering their costs in terms of feed input and so on,” he said.

The booklet is Teagasc’s output in response to requests made by the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue to see “a credible roadmap” laid out to both assist farmers with the recent price hike and to develop a longer-term strategy to reduce the sector’s dependence on chemical fertilisers.