Dairy Chitchat 4, an udder new thread.

Whatever about the timeframe, I wouldn't be too worried about that. But having cows standing in the yard getting stressed and hungry for that long is what I'd be getting excited about from a conception point of view

I see Dairygold have appointed a former reality TV star as their new chairman... he has 6 kids now so would imagine the 50k is well spent... the younger generation here might need to do a bit of Googling to find out more bout him

His fringe is surviving well..😎

Had to google him myself to see if he'd any qualifications. He's come through the farmer ranks seemingly on the boards and has a Nuffield scholarship and a business degree. Hopefully do well. Well he's in the big money now anyway.

Well at least he's an active youngish farmer. unlike more on that board.

Alps have you any idea how we can get foliar on the same Nitrogen reducing environmental standing as protected urea?

Whoever can use my farms data for year gone out as a test piece.

Would I have to go straight to Jack Nolan or who would I approach?

A bit of back up from other farmers using same would also massively help.

It's not even on Teagasc' nor the dept radar on nitrogen reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Both above inform direction and now Tirlan are insisting on protected urea as an environmental measure.

(I'm also using seaweed coated CAN which is completely off radar. But if we could deal with one first. )

This shine is going off this idea.

I'd be labelled a crank. And human nature, be subjected to every dept inspection going and the milk lorry would end up going odd hours on every collection.

Throw them a couple of hundred grand for a trial and they'll do it.

Dafm probably wouldn't fund something like that either, mightn't be scientific enough for them

How is the labour issue on farm? Any problems with thieving, break ins or what you'd hear of south africa, farm invasions?

I'm envious of you out there.

2 problematic areas avenues at play.

The difficulty at the moment is the push by coops to have a holier than thou image, hence the push for such environmental payments.

IMO it discredits origin green and our bord bia accreditation.

The dairygold move leaves no avenue open for foliar use of urea, other than to forgo that portion of the bonus...On the PU portion, if you're foliar applying at half rate, it's a miniscule loss of bonus. (and a narrow minded pissy effort by board/management to enforce "loyalty")

That leaves the department or regulatory route to PU persuasion...I don't believe that there is anything specific designed here. The want is to replace CAN with PU and a National reduction of N by 30% (Nitrates has a reduced farm specific figure this year), but no design on enforcement of PU....

Maybe they've a deal done with the Coops to do the dirty work here.

Anyway, I reckon if each farm ends up with an emissions score based on fert usage, your half rate foliar applied Urea will score significantly better than full rate PU, without having to go all scientific with less volatilisation and less leaching etc..

Looking forward to our thursday evenings foilar course with Joel Williams...might be apt to pose the question around PU residuals and the operator safety of dissolving it?

An interesting thought..

I'd be concerned that it depends on the effect you look for. What was looked at afaik was residues. Was the effect on the soil microbiome looked at?

i read another article aswell that the inhibitors had an effect on the natural occurring nitrogen in the ground and slow down its release aswell.

shamelessly taken from another forum with a different view on it,

No, the name itself is purposely misleading, it doesn't "protect" the urea, or do anything to the urea at all. It is coated with a urease inhibitor. Without getting too technical urease is an enzyme in the soil which breaks down the urea into ammonium which is taken up by the plant. The problem is there are ammonia loses during the process. The urease inhibitor does as the name suggests, it inhibits the ability of the enzyme to break down the urea, thus slowing the process and reducing ammonia losses. The big issue with the inhibitor is it doesn't differentiate between different forms of nitrogen, and will reduce the ability of the urease to break down organic N in the soil as well. The long-term effects are as yet unproven for better or for worse. That's a fairly basic description.

in my view, i don't think there is enough research done on it and as reduce down ammonia emission, its a big runner but what is the long term effect on the soil,