Contractors urge Minister to act now on a slurry extension

Ongoing poor weather conditions in 2023 is proving to be a difficult silage and cereal harvesting and after weeks of heavy rainfall Agricultural Contractors have requested the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage of Ireland, Darragh O’Brien, TD and Minister for Agriculture, Food, and the Marine, Mr Charlie McConalogue, TD, to extend the period for slurry spreading to October 15, 2023, as the deadline dates will be impossible to achieve due to ongoing poor harvesting conditions for grass silage and tillage crops.

The Association of Farm Contractors in Ireland (FCI), the national association representing Agricultural & Forestry Contractors in Ireland, has written to both Ministers requesting that they immediately use the powers available to them under SI 113 of 2022, to extend the period for slurry spreading from October 1, 2023 to October 15, 2023, against the background of approved scientific criteria. FCI is looking for the Ministers to put a National Contingency Plan in place now, rather than waiting until the end of September.

This National Contingency Plan will allow farmers to plan their workload in conjunction with their agricultural contractors, where the priorities remain to maintain environmental safety as well as the safety of agricultural contractor employees who in the absence of such a plan will simply not be able to achieve the work objectives of their farming clients.

This will allow for the completion of the crop harvests, grass, maize and cereals. It will then allow for full utilisation of excess organic slurry nutrients that are now being produced on livestock farms as animals are being housed earlier than usual or have been held back for later applications, due to unprecedented wet weather conditions.

Given the shortages of winter feed in many areas and the fact that cows and cattle are eating into first cut silage reserves on many farms, agricultural contractor FCI members expect to be harvesting grass silage crops up until the beginning of October, even if weather conditions improve in the coming weeks, said FCI National Chair, John Hughes. “The production partnerships that exist between farmers and their agricultural contractor, have clearly identified that attempts at a third cut of grass silage will extend the harvest into early October,” he added.

“This situation will deprive farmers and their farm contractors of the opportunity to spread animal slurry on fields between now and six/seven weeks’ time. This time lapse will mean harvesting grass silage into the first week of October, which should be followed by the application of slurry to this grass stubble, if weather conditions allow,” added John Hughes.

For this reason, FCI is requesting that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in consultation with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, immediately use the powers available to them under the following sections of the STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS S.I. No. 113 of 2022 EUROPEAN UNION (GOOD AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE FOR PROTECTION OF WATERS) REGULATIONS 2022, to announce the extension of the deadline for the slurry spreading from October 1, 2023 to October 15, 2023.

Article 8 (7) of SI 113 of 2022 states: Notwithstanding sub-article (6), slurry may be spread between 8th and 15th October in 2022, and between 1st and 15th October from 2023 in accordance with criteria to be published by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in consultation with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, by 1st September 2022.

Schedule 4 of SI 113 of 2022 (Page 52) clearly states the following regulations:

5. In relation to the commencement of the closed period for slurry application, the Minister (Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage of Ireland) shall by 1st September 2022, following consultation with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, publish criteria for the application of slurry from 1st October to the 15th October. The spreading of all slurry shall be in accordance with these criteria from the 8th October to the 15th October 2022 and from 1st October to the 15th October in subsequent years.

FCI is urging both Ministers to make this decision as a matter of urgency in order to allow farmers to plan the management of grass harvesting and slurry spreading, in association with their agricultural contractors, in a structured way that preserves environmental and personal safety. If a decision of this nature is not taken immediately, the association said that FCI members will be unable to achieve the necessary slurry spreading programmes on individual farms in advance of the October 1, 2023 spreading deadline.

“The immediate priority of our FCI members who provide combine harvesting, straw management, silage harvesting, slurry spreading, and cultivation services to thousands of Irish farmers, is now to use their skills and machinery management experience harvest the cereal crop of the highest nutritional and monetary value, manage the harvest of the straw, as well as secure grass fodder supplies for their client farmers,” said FCI National Chair John Hughes.

For these reasons, FCI are requesting that the Minister uses the powers available under Section 10 of SI 113 as Minister for Housing, Local Government, and Heritage of Ireland and in consultation with the Minister for Agriculture, Food, and the Marine to seek an immediate extension of the slurry spreading deadline from October 1, 2023 to October 15, 2023 for all farmers.