‘If you don’t get your soil sampled, you could be throwing money away on fertiliser and slurry’
Cavan soil sampler Caoin McCabe explains why the service he provides is so useful, why he thinks sampling will soon be mandatory for every farmer and why he would have emigrated if it wasn’t for Macra
It’s the busiest time of the year for Cavan-based soil sampler Caoin McCabe as he races against time before the end of the sampling season. Farmers need their soil management plans before they start spreading chemical fertiliser or slurry, says Caoin; once they start spreading, soil samples can’t be taken as the results would be inaccurate.
“This is the peak time for soil sampling now so work is mental,” he says.
“The window for soil sampling is four months, from November to February, so this month is all about getting the last of them wrapped up and the getting the results out to farmers so that they can plan what they need.
“It’s recommended to leave nine weeks between spreading fertiliser or slurry and taking a soil sample so that the results are not skewed.”
He set up his company, Caoin’s Soil Sampling, two years ago and has been working alongside ag-tech firm Farmeye, across nine counties.
“The first step for me is getting the maps from the farmer so that I can see what I’m dealing with before I arrive on the farm,” he says. “I send the maps to Farmeye and they give me a breakdown of each area of the farm.
“When I arrive out with the farmer, I go through the maps with them to make sure everything is correct and I head to the furthest point of the farm and work my way back.”
Caoin walks in a ‘W’ across the block of land he’s sampling — the block can be up to 4ha (almost 10ac) — and takes 25-30 samples along the way using a hand-held instrument called a soil corer.
“It’s important to get a comprehensive sample of the block of land and not just take samples in one place like the middle of the field or over next the hedge.
“The top of a field could be lovely and dry but the other end of it could be very wet and the soil type could be different, so walking the ‘W’ ensures that I get a sample from all ends and areas of the block of land, making the results more accurate,” he says.
Soil sampling is the only way to properly know what your land is lacking, says Caoin, and despite what some believe, you can’t always know by just looking at your grass.
“There are tell-tale signs that your land is lacking in something — like if it’s very yellow or orange-looking or growing a lot of moss, you can be sure it’s deficient in lime and that the pH is imbalanced.
“But without soil sampling, you won’t know for sure and you won’t know how much of any given nutrient you need to spread.
“Most farms across Ireland are deficient in lime — Irish farmers generally just don’t spread enough of it, that’s what I’m seeing.
“If your farm is deficient in lime, it won’t utilise chemical fertiliser or slurry properly and you’ll be just throwing money away. A soil sample usually only costs around €35 (per sample) so it’s money well spent in the long run.”
After the soil sampling is complete and the samples have been analysed, the farmer gets a comprehensive report of their land.
“The farmer will be able to see exactly where I have walked and where the samples have been taken and they will get a breakdown of the nutrient levels in their soil,” Caoin says.
“A standard sample tests for pH, phosphorous and potassium as well as the level of water in the soil.
“The Farmeye reports I use colour-code the areas of your land depending on the findings. Put simply, it’s like a traffic light system: where your land is marked green it’s good and doesn’t require anything, where it’s orange it’s average and where it’s red it is in bad need of something.
“The report gives a good breakdown of each of the levels found in your land and where the attention is needed. Farmers can read this themselves and act on it or they can bring it to their advisors to make a comprehensive plan.”
While 99pc of Caoin’s clients are either dairy farmers in derogation or are in ACRES and are required to soil sample, he believes every farmer in the country will be required to sample their soil within the next five years.
“It’s the only way that the Department can see exactly what your farm needs and prevent the unneeded use of chemical fertiliser, so I see soil sampling becoming mandatory for everyone,” he says.
Caoin, who aims to take 30 samples per day, whether across two larger farms or four smaller ones, says having an outdoor job is great for his physical and mental health.
“I worked in an office role for a while and I said ‘never again’ — I am an outdoors person and that’s what suits me, being out in the fresh air is what I crave.”
With the bulk of Caoin’s soil sampling work coming to an end in the next couple of months, he will have more time to spend on the 45ac family farm just outside Cavan town which he runs with his father Michael.
“We buy in weanlings when they’re 5-10 months old and we castrate them,” he says.
“We keep them for two winters — until they reach 26-30 months — and then we sell them as forward stores in the local mart.
“The farm is all permanent pasture and it isn’t fenced — that and reseeding are two jobs that need to be done. My father inherited the land about 20 years ago and it was bare at the time so we have been working at it bit by bit, but with both of us working off-farm it is taking time to get it to where we want it to be.”
Caoin also keeps “a handful of mixed-breed sheep” and plans on increasing numbers once the farm is fenced.
“I’ll have more time to spend on the farm and the fencing when the soil sampling dries up and then I’ll get a few more sheep,” he says.
“At the minute I just buy whatever is cheapest at the mart on any given day — I’m just looking to turn a few pound quickly.
“But down the line I would like to get into Blue-Faced Leicesters, I’ve always liked them and they tend to make a good enough price.”
Macra has played a big role in Caoin’s life since he joined six years ago and he credits the organisation for him still being in the country.
“If it wasn’t for Macra I’d be on the other side of the world with so many other young people my age,” he says.
“But because of Macra, I’ve made so friends from every county in Ireland and that has given me a great reason to stay here — I have someone to turn to in nearly every part of the country.
“Every weekend I’m away at a different Macra event in a different county. I was in Sligo last weekend and I’m heading to Cork this weekend. I couldn’t recommend it enough.”