A major Crops and Technology open day was held on Wednesday, 25th June at the Teagasc Crops Research Centre in Oak Park, Carlow (Ireland). The event covered the latest research on all the main tillage crops and horticultural field crops.
Arable cropping uses considerable amounts of mineral fertiliser, much of which is derived from non-renewable sources. At the same time, a considerable amount of nutrients are potentially available to the arable sector through recycling from other agricultural sectors and from other sectors. The use of novel products emanating from various industrial streams is less familiar to most growers. Work on integrating these products into fertiliser programmes has been ongoing in Teagasc for a number of years as part of a number of European funded projectsn including the ReNu2Cycle project.
At the Teagasc Open Day on 25 June, there was a display of a range of recycled bio-based fertilisers, results from a long-term, now seven year study, where bio-based recycled nutrients were used to provide a portion of the crop nutrient requirement.
Irish Farmers Journal
At the occassion of this Open Door, the ReNu2Cycle project was specifically mentioned in an article in the Irish Farmers Journal, a national farming newspaper.
There was also a live display of a spring barley crop grown using some of these products as part of a balanced fertiliser program side by side with a crop grown exclusively with mineral fertilisers as part of the ReNu2cycle project. Experts were on hand to discuss the pros and cons of these fertilisers and give advice on how such recycled fertilisers could be incorporated into fertiliser programs.