National standards regarding good livestock management have been in existence for many years and were set by my Department following consultation with the Department of the Environment. They are designed to ensure that there is minimal risk of pollution arising from livestock production. The general conditions are set out in the Code of Good Agricultural Practice to Protect Waters from Pollution by Nitrates published last year by my Department and the Department of the Environment and also in advisory material for participants in the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme. Therefore pollution risk assessments of individual farms are not carried out by my Department nor are farmers participating in pollution control schemes operated by my Department required to carry out such assessments.
The purpose of the control of farm pollution scheme, now suspended, is to enable farmers to construct buildings, waste storage, and fodder storage facilities so as to avoid the risk of pollution from all farmyard wastes including silage effluent and to meet local authority waste storage requirements. The construction of intensive bovine slatted developments is limited to the production capacity of the holding at a level not exceeding two livestock units per hectare.