Soil sampling project nears its end in County Fermanagh

THE sampling of fields in Fermanagh as well as parts of Tyrone and Armagh under Zone 2 of the Soil Nutrient Health Scheme will be concluding in the next month or so.

According to AFBI, some 128,000 fields have been sampled in the Soil Nutrient Health Scheme during the 2023/24 sampling period.

This makes a total of 261,000 fields sampled across Zone 1 (Down and Armagh) and 2 during the two years of the scheme, to date.

The aim of the fouryear scheme is to improve efficiency in the farming sector while reducing environmental impact, particularly on our rivers and lakes.

Dr. Rachel Cassidy, the SNHS Project Lead (AFBI), said: “Sampling in Zone 2 was expected to be challenging due to generally wetter ground conditions in the west in winter, and mitigations were in place to deal with this.

“However, the unprecedented wet and wintery weather experienced over the sampling period has been difficult for the samplers, and left some areas too wet for sampling.”

She explained: “Any remaining unsampled fields which are not due to receive nutrient applications will be rescheduled for sampling during April/ May. All other fields will be rescheduled for this autumn.”

Within 4-6 weeks of sampling, farmers will receive a soil nutrient report directly from NRM laboratories in the post.

This will contain tables of results and recommendations based on their supplied crop information, including details of the nutrient, ph and soil organic matter levels in each field.

These results and risk maps will also be available online via the DAERA online portal, at https://bit.ly/ Daeraonline.

The next step for a farm business, once they receive their results, is to complete the training element of SNHS being delivered by CAFRE.

Completion of training is also a requirement to secure future farm payments.

The training is available online via the CAFRE website (at http://www.cafre.ac.uk/ snhs-training) and will help farmers to gain a better understanding of their soil results and to develop a nutrient management plan.