Fertiliser allowances: Many merchants or suppliers of fertiliser continue to report confusion regarding fertiliser allowances when farmers are purchasing product.
Phosphorus (P) continues to be the main area of confusion where soil samples are not available.
Where farmers had a grassland stocking rate in excess of 130kg organic nitrogen in 2024 they must assume index 4 for P in the absence of soil samples. This means such farms cannot purchase fertiliser with any P compound.
Farms with a grassland stocking rate of less than 130kg organic N/ha must assume index 3 for P in the absence of soil samples.
While this will generate a P allowance, account must also be taken of stocking rate and the volume of concentrates fed as this will reduce the P allowance by 5kg. It is worth farmers sitting down and doing the figures (see https://www.farmersjournal.ie/focus/fertilizers/getting-to-grips-with-fertiliser-allowances-856420) or talking with their adviser. Farms without recent soil samples should also be looking to get samples collected if possible before fertiliser is applied – as without this knowledge it is a guessing game on what the soil requires.
Lower stocked farms below 85kg organic nitrogen per hectare also need to note that there are new allowances for how much chemical nitrogen can be applied.
Marketing spring lambs: Factories have stepped up their appetite for spring lambs with base quotes increasing by 20c/kg in the last week.
Opening prices on offer range from €9.50/kg to €9.60/kg for quality assured lambs with some groups topping this range. The typical kill-out of early born lambs with access to creep feed and drafted at 12 to 14 weeks of age is 49% to 50%, with some lambs with excellent conformation exceeding this range. Aged lambs will generally kill-out at one to two percentage points lower and this should be taken into account when drafting lambs.
Factories are paying to a maximum carcase weight of 21kg, so there is no merit in retaining lambs above this weight unless aiming for niche butcher demand and there is market demand at present for such sheep.
Many butchers are opting for similar carcase weight specs as factories for the Easter trade to keep the price of cuts to the consumer within a certain limit, so if aiming for this market, it is worth confirming desired specs.
NSWS application: The sheep feature on page 34 summarises the actions in the 2025 National Sheep Welfare Scheme (NSWS). Applications must be submitted online via Department’s agfood.ie facility by an applicant or a Farm Advisory Scheme (FAS) adviser approved to act on the applicant’s behalf.
The application process is relatively straightforward. Log on and select the heading 2025 NSWS. In the drop down menu, select 2025 NSWS and under application type, select this again. This will bring you through to the main scheme page.
This will present the figure on which payment will be based and is taken as the average of the last three census application returns.
If the 2024 census return is higher then this figure can be claimed by entering it under the ‘payable number’ box.
A lower number can also be selected here.
The next step is to select your actions and the deadline date on which these will be completed. The terms and conditions boxes must be ticked to state that you agree to them, followed by submission of the application.
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