Peebles Nutrient Network Farm Second Meeting – event summary

Wormiston Farm – Peeblesshire’s Soil & Nutrient Network Farm

The second of three meetings of the Peeblesshire Soil & Nutrient Network was held at Wormiston Farm, Eddleston on 28th

February 2017.  The main focus points for the meeting were:

• An update on the nutrient budget & associated financial savings
• Soil texture & structure demonstrations
• Application of organic manures
• An introduction to soil biodiversity

Those who attended were shown how fertiliser savings can be made by analysing soil and tailoring fertiliser applications for individual crop offtakes. SRUC Technical notes are available to download from the bottom of this page to help with that process.  Presentation slides from this part of the event are available here.

A key message was to ensure that soil pH is correct in the first instance, and then start to look at methods to correct phosphate and potash levels.  This could be achieved through the use on organic manures available on farm, or through compound or straight bagged fertilisers.  The new phosphate sorption capacity Technical Note (TN668) currently accounts for soil type & capacity to regulate phosphate availability for plant uptake.

There is a need to identify soil type when budgeting for phosphate applications.

Later in the day, there was an demonstration to identify compaction using the VESS (Visual Examination of Soil Structure) guide and further information can be found in the Valuing Your Soils booklet.

Finally, the benefits of using available Technical Notes (see downloads below) to help calculate farm nutrient budgets was discussed.

Please contact Chris.McDonald@sac.co.uk if you would like any further information about the Peeblesshire Soil & Nutrient Network.