Reviewing research and data on grass and forage crop nutrient management

The Nutrient Management Guide (RB209) provides industry-standard, nutrient management recommendations for arable, horticultural and grassland crops in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

It serves as a practical, robust and evidence-based guide designed to optimise economic productivity while minimising environmental impacts.

This work directly responds to priorities identified in AHDB’s 2024 strategic review of RB209, which highlighted the need to strengthen the evidence base for nutrient requirements for grass and forage crops.

The 2024 review also highlighted a priority of ‘Management of nutrients across rotations’.

Crops included within RB209 Section 3 are being grown on more farms. Therefore, enhancing guidance for these crops will deliver whole-system benefits.

The desk-based study will undertake a comprehensive review of recent UK-relevant research and data on grassland and forage crop nutrient management.

It will also identify critical knowledge gaps that require further investigation to support future development of RB209 Section 3 (Grass and forage crops).

 Key objectives include:

• Critically reviewing UK-relevant research and data to inform updates to the current nutrient recommendations and technical content of RB209 Section 3
• Identifying situations where there is a lack of robust evidence to provide nutrient recommendations for specific grassland/forage systems, and provide a summary of best available guidance for these situations
• Providing recommendations for further research required to address evidence gaps
• Evaluating options to improve the flow of information and ease of understanding for users
• Providing case studies to support farmers in understanding nutrient recommendations for their own grassland farming system

Providing answers to your questions

This research project was funded based on the findings of the 2024 strategic review of the Nutrient Management Guide (RB209).