The Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters Regulations 2017 give legal effect in Ireland to the Nitrates Directive and to our Nitrates Action Programme (NAP) and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government (DHPLG) is the lead Department in this regard. The Directive requires all member states to define set periods when the land application of fertiliser is not allowed. In Ireland, the current ‘closed period’ is aligned with that period of the year when greatest nutrient losses occur.
However, in all cases of potential animal welfare issues arising, my Department operates an animal welfare helpline Lo-call 076 1064408 , along with a dedicated email address, AnimalWelfare@agriculture.gov.ie . Farmers may contact the helpline due to animal welfare arising from tanks that have reached capacity and can therefore impact on welfare. Farmers are advised to contact this welfare helpline giving their flooding/trafficability situation, their herd number and other relevant data.
Farmers will be advised, in the first instance, to seek access to alternative storage in compliance with the Regulations. If spreading is the only option available to protect animal welfare, that a farmer should spread only that volume of slurry necessary to ensure adequate storage capacity for the remainder of the closed period. Fields that are not connected to water should be first choice for spreading (the driest fields that do not have drains or streams). Any spreading should occur as soon as good spreading conditions exist.
Farmers availing of this facility for animal welfare issues will be prioritised for inspection by Local Authorities in the immediate future to ensure compliance with the Nitrates Regulations. An assessment of overall on-farm storage capacity may be part of that inspection process as the duty of farmers (the occupier of a holding) in relation to nutrient management remain fully applicable.
My Department will subsequently contact the farmers to ascertain and record the date(s) on which any additional spreading takes place.
