The highly decorated and respected Sinclair Mayne carried out a review of all the existing clover and multi-species research work carried out by Teagasc and University College Dublin to date. The report, published this week, shows grass and clover is the future, but there is work to do.
The highly decorated and respected Sinclair Mayne carried out a review of all the existing clover and multi-species research work carried out by Teagasc and University College Dublin to date.
The report, published this week, shows grass and clover is the future, but there is work to do.
The suggestion is also that there is insufficient evidence to support farmers planting multi-species swards right now.
According to Teagasc director Frank O’Mara, the objective of the review was to establish a roadmap of actions that Teagasc now needs to take to further develop options for a future with less artificial nitrogen.
It is fair to say that over the last few years some commercial farmers have engaged in a type of on-farm multi-species research with little or no control – and often that only leads to further confusion.
We even had Department schemes incentivising these unproven technologies. Mayne’s report will take some teasing out, but he clearly points out that we have produced less feed on farms and are in danger of replacing it with more costly feed that does nothing for sustainability.
Therefore, while the industry may have reduced artificial nitrogen usage, farmers may well have just spent the money elsewhere.
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