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2nd February 2017

Shared Waters, Shared Landscape Project- Test your soil and save money!

A partnership between Mullaghbane and Cullyhanna Community Association, Dundalk Institute of Technology’s Centre for Freshwater and Environmental Studies, Ulster Farmer’s Union, Coomhola Salmon Trust Ltd. Newry Mourne and Down District Council’s Ring of Gullion Partnership and Woodland Trust has received funding from the Northern Ireland’s Environment Agency’s Challenge Fund. As part of the project landowners with land running alongside the Forkhill River and around lakes in Cullyhanna can sign up to get free soil samples.

There will be a free workshop on Thursday 2nd February at 7.30pm in Mullaghbane Community Centre where all community memberscan find out more about the project and landowners can sign up their fields for the free soil samples. As part of the project, landowners will be provided with assistants carrying out the soil samples and will be provided with feedback on the results, which should help save money on fertilizer cost and improve the quality of your soil!

Councillor Gillian Fitzpatrick, Chairperson of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council explains, “Nutrient management can help farmers save money and reduce pollution and that is why it is one of our main focuses as part of this Shared Waters Project. You can make best use of manure, sewage sludge, compost, crop rotation and precision farming through nutrient management planning. It helps you match nutrients to specific fields on your farm. To do this you will need to analyse the nutrient content of soil in your fields every three or four years. This project will help you to work out the amount of nutrients to give your crops for your local field conditions.”

“We are working with a number of great partners to engage the local communities in order to understand local relationships with the natural environment and to develop a community-led vision for the future management of local land and water resources. There will be a number of workshops over the next weeks as well as the soil sampling and a mapping exercise. We encourage all the community to get involved”.

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