Fertilise the Brain with FACTS

8th October 2007
Kevin O’Donnell, CAFRE, Greenmount Campus

Giving good advice on the use of fertiliser on farm has never been so important. Advise on too little usage and the farmer’s crop is reduced. Advise on too much usage and the farmer wastes money; pollution may result; the farmer could be fined and his Single Farm Payment or Countryside management scheme payment reduced.

If your business is selling to, and advising farmers on fertiliser, then you should think seriously about getting a FACTS (Fertiliser Advisers Certification and Training Scheme) certificate.

Having a FACTS certificate means that you have the latest knowledge of how the soil, fertiliser and organic manures interact to produce not only a good crop but also maintain the environment.

The FACTS course covers a range of topics including:

Colin Jack of Taggart Jack, Agricultural Merchants in Ardstraw completed the FACTS course successfully recently: “It has been of good benefit to me in the business. We have farmers coming in here to buy fertiliser. If they have soil analysis for their fields I can now recommend the best fertiliser for them to complement the value of the organic manure they are putting on. At a time when the level of N and P being applied to fields is coming under a lot of scrutiny our customers can be confident that they are optimising production from their ground without harming the environment.”