Tipperary agri-business in €4m research programme to cut applied nitrogen fertilizers

A major research project involving Tipperary-based Germinal has been awarded almost €4m (Stg£3.3m) to fund on-farm testing of a new approach to grassland farming that seeks to eliminate the dependence of grassland meat and dairy farming on applied nitrogen fertilizers.  

The project, called Project NUE-Leg’ will exploit major innovations in plant breeding, soil microbiology, nutrition and grassland management to achieve improvements in the capacities of legumes, such as white and red clovers, in combination with soil microbes, to fix nitrogen from fresh air and make this available to grasslands.

New proprietary legume varieties have also been developed by Belfast and Horse and Jockey-based Germinal and Aberystwyth University in Wales that improve the efficiency of protein uptake by cattle from grassland thereby reducing emissions of ammonia. Other varieties have also been developed which contain tannins that reduce methane emissions by cattle.  

The objective of Project NUE-Leg is to create the conditions in commercial farm settings that will enable clover to fix up to 300 kg of nitrogen per hectare per year, a large portion of which will be available for grass growth. At these levels, additional chemical nitrogen fertilizers needed for grass growth can largely be eliminated. 

Commenting, Paul Billings, Managing Director Germinal UK & Ireland, said: “Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for growing grass. Without it we could not grow the grass we need to feed our livestock and produce the dairy and meat products we need.

"However, nitrogen fertilisers are also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions in their manufacture and transport, and from in-field losses such as nitrous oxide and ammonia.

"They are also a source of nitrate losses to our waterways. They are expensive and farmers have seen huge volatility in prices, particularly in the last two years when price fluctuations have been around 300%.

"Governments around the world have rightly said that we need to reduce our reliance on nitrogen fertilizers. We need a solution. Legumes such as white and red clovers grown with grass can fix nitrogen from the air, but with no emissions.

"A grass sward with a good clover content could fix on average between 100 and 150 kg of nitrogen per hectare per year. The clover will use about 75 kg of this for itself. The rest is available to the grass.  

"But what if we could maximise the capacity of clovers to fix nitrogen by ensuring we have enough clovers that can persist in the sward, and match them with the right soil microbes and the right nutrition?

"We also need to wrap this up in a management approach that supports farmers and gives them the tools and information they need to make this work in a commercial setting, and make a profit.  

"This is what we want to achieve with Project NUE-Leg. We want to achieve a threefold increase in the capacity of clovers to fix atmospheric nitrogen up to 300 kg nitrogen per hectare per year and thereby eliminate the need for chemical nitrogen fertilisers.  

"This project has the potential to be truly transformative for grassland farming globally. It could be a game-changer in both cutting emissions and in supporting farm profitability.”