Tighter rules on slurry movements

Farmers exporting slurry to stay within nitrates limits are facing additional requirements to verify its movement from farm-to-farm.

On February 29, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) announced a suite of nitrates proposals to improve water quality as part of a review of the Nitrates Action Plan. Included in this was a move to a new four day requirement to notify the Department of any slurry movements.

A statement from the DAFM read: “To allow inspection on the ground to verify slurry movements, the Department is moving to a timeframe of four days for reporting livestock manure movements between farms. This will be rolled out in the coming weeks allowing farmers sufficient time to declare any movements of manure that have already taken place in 2024.”

As a means of protecting water quality, this change will verify the actual amounts of slurry being moved with the quantities notified to DAFM, preventing disproportionate loads of nutrients being applied on some lands – an action that can have a detrimental effect on water quality.

The movement of slurry from farm-to-farm has been a mechanism used by some farmers to export organic nitrogen to stay below the 170kg of organic N/ha limit - if not in receipt of a derogation in 2023 - or the 250kg of organic N/ha limit for those in receipt of a nitrates derogation in 2023.

These farmers were already required to notify DAFM of slurry movements, but this typically occurred long after the movement and application of slurries. In addition to this, the receiving farmer also had to verify on the DAFM’s AgFood system that they did in fact receive the slurry.

Also read: Farmers face additional water quality inspections

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