August 28th 1999

REPS & Environment

Hopefully, by now, most of the organic manures produced over the 1998/99 winter have been recycled back onto to the silage ground on livestock farms. Ideally slurry should be spread early in the year to make good use of its nutrient content. Measure 1 of REPS requires that at least half of the slurry produced is spread by 1 July and the remainder by 30 September.

Reassess your position. Are the tanks at least half empty? Have you scheduled the spreading of the remainder of the slurry to beat the 30 September deadline? As the year goes on weather and in turn spreading conditions generally deteriorate. If the forecast (no heavy rain for at least 48 hours) and ground conditions suit empty those slurry tanks.

A check on the amount of slurry remaining in tanks is relatively simple should Farm Development Service personnel visit a REPS farm.

Spreading limits are 4400 gallons per acre or 50 cubic metres per hectare in a single application and 2200 gallons per acre or 25 cubic metres per hectare in shallow limestone terrain. Remember that REPS requires spreading with a low trajectory spreader, a band spreader or injection of the slurry.

Keep the slurry out of hedgerow bottoms and waterways. The buffer zones are 1.5 metres for hedges, 10 metres for small watercourses, 20 metres for larger watercourses and lakes, 50 metres for domestic wells and 300 metres in the case of public water supplies.

Do not spread slurry on wet or waterlogged soils, where ground slopes steeply towards watercourses, on exposed bedrock or on bare ground. Slurry spreading can be an emotive subject so adhere to good practice.