DEFRA Fertiliser Manual one step from publication

The long-awaited DEFRA Fertiliser Manual is inching closer to publication, after revisions of the grassland sector were discussed in December, Keith Goulding, the project’s co-ordinator from Rothamsted Research, says.

“The grassland team is making final changes now. It will then go to the review team with the intention of sending the final version to DEFRA by the end of January.”

The revision of RB209, the government’s fertiliser bible, started in 2007. “It should have been finished in not much more than a year,” Prof Goulding admitted.

But issues surrounding cereal recommendations, and in particular the grassland sector delayed publication.

“With grassland the difficulty has been agreeing an approach. You either treat it like a crop, and look to get maximum economic grass growth, or do you look to have maximum meat or milk production?

“In the end it has been decided to use a system that optimises livestock production. But coming up with recommendations depends on what system you are using. When you get to that level of complexity it is difficult to produce simple recommendations.”