Key Farm Deadlines this Autumn

Vincent Ronayne, Drystock Advisor, Teagasc Claremorris

As we enter the last three months of the year it is time to check that deadlines and conditions for schemes are met and also to be aware of other areas of the farm are meeting legal requirements. The following is a timely list of reminders of some key dates but not a complete list:

• Chemical fertilizer can no longer be applied after 15/09/2024.
• The closing date for slurry spreading is fast approaching on 30/09/2024.
• Closing balance of stocks of fertilizer needs to be uploaded on the National Fertilizer Database on Agfood.ie
• Applications for the BEEF Welfare Scheme 2024 must be submitted before 24/09/2024
• Suckler farmers in SCEP must upload weights for cows and calves before 01/11/2024.
• Farmers in SCEP must complete the online training modules by 15/11/2024
• Farmers in SCEP should plan now to meet the minimum requirement for 65% 4/5 star females on 31/10/2025
• ACRES 1 soil samples need to be taken and the results uploaded before 31/12/2024
• ACRES 2 soil samples need to be taken and uploaded before 15/05/2025
• Farmers in the Sheep Improvement Scheme need to purchase a genotyped 4 or 5 star ram in either year 1,2 or 3. Check is this your year for this action?
• Autumn/Winter is a good time to plant trees or hedging.
• September 1st to February 28th is the only time hedges can be trimmed or cut. Permission may be got for outside these dates if safety is a priority.

Felling of trees - exempted trees

Farmers are responsible for trees and hedges growing on their land along public roads. Permission is required for cutting trees but there are some exemptions. Here are some common scenarios where trees can be felled without the need to submit a tree felling licence application under Section 19 of the Forestry Act, 2014:

• A tree in an urban area. An urban area is an area that comprised a city, town or borough specified in Part 2 of Schedule 5 and in Schedule 6 of the Local Government Act 2001 before the enactment of the Local Government Reform Act 2014.
• A tree within 30 metres of a building (other than a wall or temporary structure), but excluding any building built after the trees were planted.
• A tree less than five years of age that came about through natural regeneration and removed from a field as part of the normal maintenance of agricultural land (but not where the tree is standing in a hedgerow).
• A tree uprooted in a nursery for the purpose of transplantation.
• A tree of the willow or poplar species planted and maintained solely for fuel under a short rotation coppice.
• Trees outside a forest – within 10 metres of a public road and which, in the opinion of the owner (being an opinion formed on reasonable grounds), is dangerous to persons using the public road on account of its age or condition.
• Trees outside a forest – the removal of which is specified in a grant of planning permission.
• Trees outside a forest – of the hawthorn or blackthorn species.
• Trees outside a forest – in a hedgerow and felled for the purposes of its trimming, provided that the tree does not exceed 20 centimetres in diameter when measured 1.3 metres from the ground.
• Trees outside a forest – on an agricultural holding and removed by the owner for use on that holding, provided:
  • It does not form part of a decorative avenue or ring of trees
  • Its volume does not exceed 3 cubic metres, and
  • That the removal of it, by the owner for the foregoing purpose, when taken together with the removal of other such trees by the owner for that purpose, would not result in the total volume of trees, on that holding and removed by the owner for that purpose, exceeds 15 cubic metres in any period of 12 months.