Cutting nitrogen, pesticides and adding livestock

“Don’t be afraid to try something new” was the main message from host farmer Norman Dunne to the crowd attending Soil Dependence 2024 on his farm outside Maynooth.

Having practised a continuous cereal plough-based system up until 2015, Norman says that he was finding it more difficult to create a good seedbed in his fields, with the land becoming worn and earthworms disappearing from his soil.

In 2015, he joined BASE Ireland, which he says led to a change of mindset. He then planted his first cover crop and hired in a direct drill in the following couple of years. This ended up being a great success, and Norman says it was a lightbulb moment. While there have been ups and downs, he has not looked back.

Norman, who farms alongside his father Michael, now grows a range of winter and spring cereals, in addition to oilseed rape, beans, and peas on 400ac of heavy tillage soils.

Some of these crops are sown as bi-crops, with spring barley planted with peas, and spring oats planted with both beans and peas, while cereal variety mixes are also used.

All winter crops are direct-drilled, while a very light surface cultivation takes place before spring cereals are sown.

To ensure a good crop establishment, combating slug pressure, poor seed-to-soil contact and birds, Norman uses very high seeding rates. He can afford to do this as 95% of his seed is home-saved. He says that this reduces his financial risk in the case of poor establishment. He cleans this seed himself, which saves money on a bill of over €5,000 each year.

He also uses biological and nutrient-based seed dressings, which he will mix and create himself.

He showed photos on the day of emerging cereals with and without the biological dressing, with the biological dressed seed emerging much more quickly.

Cover crops

Cover crop seed is now the biggest cost on Norman’s farm. He will try to use as many different species in these mixes as possible.

e has also mounted an air seeder to the back of his combine header.

He spreads some cover crop seed behind the header, with the chopping of the straw behind the combine helping to preserve moisture in the soil, which helps to improve germination rates.

Cover crops are destroyed by flail mower, glyphosate, or by a disc harrow.

The 2018 drought was the biggest learning curve for Norman, and he has been trying to build resilience in his system and his soils ever since. He has not applied an aphicide since 2018 as he is trying to build up his beneficial insect population.

Norman says that insecticides have a place, in some instances, but he thinks they are overused by many.

The farm has not used plant growth regulators since 2019. This is due to a reduction in the amount of nitrogen applied by 35%.

He warns that nitrogen needs to be reduced slowly over a number of years, and is possible through the use of liquid nitrogen on his farm, which Norman says is more efficient.

He has also cut his fungicide use by 67% in the last four years. SAP analysis is carried out on a regular basis to examine nutrient deficiencies, which then allows him to customise his applications depending on what nutrients a particular crop actually needs.

Slug pressure was bad when he moved to a no-till system at first, but he says the benefits have now built up and he has not used slug pellets in the past four years.

Norman now applies no chemical K in the autumn and spring P and K applications have been cut by 50%.

He hopes to fully cut out chemical P and K. This is somewhat replaced by Norman’s use of compost.

The compost consists of horse and cattle dung, straw, wood shavings and sawdust.

He aerates this himself with a purpose-built compost turner over a number of months before spreading.

He spreads this from the tramlines with a 24m spreader. Norman says he has a big focus on soil compaction, with tractor drivers expected to keep to tramlines at all times.

Norman has also started to reintroduce animals to the farm. He bought some hens three years ago and has built the flock up to 900 hens. These hens are housed in a mobile coop, which he moves around in his fields.

He then sells these eggs through an honesty box system at the end of his driveway and at local farmer markets.

He has also bought in some lambs to graze cover crops, but says the ridiculous rules surrounding the grazing of cover crops may make this impossible in the future.

Norman hopes to be able to become a price-maker in the future if the food he produces becomes more valuable due to the way in which it is produced.

Some of the improvements from the change in system include improved soil health, an increase in biodiversity on the farm, and the drains and streams on the farm now run clear at all times of the year.

He is not losing soil fertility to water or, indeed, to the air through dust.

Norman can walk across all parts of his fields in the depth of winter while keeping his boots clean due to the improved soil structure.

Finally, the highest praise that Norman can give to his new system is that he now loves farming, and says that he could not see himself still farming if he did not change when he did.