Essentially, all life depends upon the soil... There can be no life without soil and no soil without life; they have evolved together.”

This was a famous quote from the renowned soil scientist Charles Edwin Kellogg (1902-1980) who served as head of the soil survey unit in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for 37 years from 1934 to 1971.

Soil and good soil fertility is essential for all types of farming, not just in Ireland but across the world.

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This week, Teagasc launched its new Soil Analysis Status and Trends Dashboard, bringing together 20 years of national soils data into one platform.

The digital dashboard allows for quick and easy analysis of soil fertility status and trends over the last 20 years and is a valuable resource for farmers, advisers and policymakers to track changes in soil pH, phosphorus and potassium indexes across a range of different enterprises, counties and land types.

Soil samples

The dashboard represents over 800,000 soil samples analysed through Teagasc since 2006 and provides a really strong, large dataset of information for analysis.

The latest figures show progress, if not painfully slow, and one surprising element is that a massive 75% of Irish soils remain deficient in pH, phosphorus and potassium.

Another concerning aspect of the report was that the number of samples analysed in 2025 was down 44% on the 2024 number.

The new dashboard highlights the huge potential that there is to improve soil fertility levels and the opportunity that this then presents in terms of improving profitability on farms and making environmental progress through better nutrient efficiency.

There are just 34% of soils on Irish dairy farms with sufficient fertility (pH >6.2 and P and K at Index 3 or 4). This represents a 2% increase on the 2024 figure but should still be a lot higher.

Recovery has been strongest for nitrogen, while phosphorus and potassium use remain below historical norms.

The figure is even more disappointing on drystock farms with just 15% of soils meeting sufficient fertility levels. Only 30% of soils on Irish tillage farms have sufficient fertility.

National fertiliser sales data shows that following the substantial decline in fertiliser use associated with the 2022 price shock, there has been only a partial recovery in nutrient inputs. Recovery has been strongest for nitrogen, while phosphorus and potassium use remain below historical norms.

Given the current situation with fertiliser prices, it will be interesting to see if further improvement can be made.

One interesting piece of commentary in the report is some of the reasons given for the substantial nutrient deficits that are persisting on tillage and drystock farms.

Lower nutrient inputs, economic constraints and limited access to organic manures were all highlighted as contributing factors to weaker fertility status on these farms.

Fertiliser trade

With uncertainty in the international fertiliser trade, would some type of support for the transfer of nutrients from pig farms to drystock and tillage farms make sense in the current climate? While the importing of slurry has always been encouraged, it hasn’t been supported.

IFA pig chair Michael Caffery this week highlighted another barrier to the importing of pig slurry. The Department of Agriculture currently use this year’s stocking rate and not the previous year’s stocking rate. As this changes during the year, it is creating uncertainty for farmers who want to import pig slurry, with many farmers not sure whether they can import slurry or not.

One interesting development in the report has been the improvement in soil pH that is directly linked to increased lime application, which happened as a result of the national liming programme in 2023.

Over 14,000 farmers availed of the lime-spreading support in 2023 and this is now reaping benefits, with increases in soil pH evident in 2025.

Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon has ruled out any supports for lime application in 2026 but the programme should be revisited given the progress achieved through the 2023 liming programme.