Livestock producers could get significantly more out of their grassland and save money by moving to 'new generation' fertilisers, according to Dr George Fisher.

Dr Fisher, an independent grassland specialist, said that new fertilisers have lower P and K levels but add vital sulphur.

He believes that such an approach could save £7 per acre and give an extra £76.40 per acre in beef production and £68.36 per acre in terms of lamb liveweight gain, while reducing potential environmental risks.

Dr Fisher said: "The industry-standard 20.10.10 fertiliser has been the first choice of many beef and sheep producers for approaching 50 years but things have changed considerably in that period and simply making the traditional choice could now be costing them dearly.

“There are obvious concerns with water soluble phosphate and using more than is necessary, but the truth is in most cases we don’t need to apply as much P as previously because systems have intensified and soil P has built up with manure applications.

“Whilst potash is required to drive Nitrogen uptake, the levels needed are much less than a high K fertiliser will be providing – so paying for these nutrients when they are not required is just a false economy.

“It wasn’t that many years ago that every year we would get around 30kg/acre of sulphate deposited from the sky but this has fallen to little more than 2-3kg/acre in recent years.

“This is simply not enough for the plants’ needs, so even on medium to heavy soils Sulphur should produce a significant response and this will be far more valuable to the end user than applying unnecessary levels of P and K.

“Such a product is simply more cost-effective than the older style products and more appropriate to the needs of livestock producers today and the restrictions they have to work within.

“But people need to change their mentality and not just look at the price per bag when assessing fertiliser, as is often the case.

"More modern products are slightly more expensive but they are much more cost-effective in reality because of the results they achieve and their higher Nitrogen content.”

According to CF Fertilisers’ Hefin Llwyd, trials carried out by the company support these lifts in production but there are other advantages too.

“We’ve seen addition of Sulphur to optimum levels lifting yields by up to 2.0t dry matter/ha with a corresponding increase in forage crude proteins of seven per cent, so it is something all grassland farmers need to be aware of.

“The problem is a lot of producers tend to stick with what they’re familiar with but in this case it could be leading to significant reductions in quality and quantity of the most cost-efficient feed they can produce.”