Department releases N and P half-year statements

Nitrogen and phosphorus (N and P) statements for the period January to June 2017 were released on Thursday.

The statements, which can be accessed on the Department’s online system www.agfood.ie, are a useful tool for farmers to take stock of the volume of N and P produced for the first half of the year. This information can be in turn used to ensure you are still on track to comply with the standard limit of 170kg organic nitrogen per hectare or the higher limit of 250kg organic nitrogen per hectare for those holding an approved derogation.

Penalties

Failure to comply with these limits are a significant factor in farmers receiving penalties to their Basic Payment Scheme with over 2,000 farmers receiving penalties annually in recent years for breaching these rules.

The potential penalties are significant, as detailed in Table 1.

Sheep and other animals not included

Farmers should note that these statements do not take into account the volume of N and P produced by sheep or goats on the holding, or other grazing and non-grazing animals.

Total annual nitrogen excretion levels, as per the nitrates directive, are listed in Table 2.

The Department uses figures submitted in the annual sheep and goat census for calculating these volumes but it is worth doing your own calculations, particularly where stock numbers or the area of land farmed may have changed since 2016.

Where the sheep census figure is likely to overestimate the level of N and P produced, farmers can calculate a more accurate estimate by taking the average number and type of sheep held on the first day of each quarter going by records in your flock register.

These quarterly figures can then be used to gain a more accurate yearly estimate. Table 3 details the table for calculating nitrogen levels with phosphorus calculated in the same manner.

Gaining access

Farmers who are not already registered for agfood.ie can do so by logging onto www.agfood.ie and clicking the register button.

If registering, you will be asked to select a username and password and it is important to record these for future use.

Note that gaining access following registration will take a few days as the Department must first send you a unique seven-digit personal access code will be required for logging on to the system. For those who are registered, N and P statements can simply be accessed in the main menu. Farmers who are registered for updates with the Department will have received notification that N and P statements have been released.

For those who are not registered for updates but wish to do so they can log onto https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/mobileupdates/ to access the sign-on form, or alternatively contact the regional office.

Taking remedial action

Remedial action may be needed where the farm is close to the limit or exceeding it going on current levels.

Options available include reducing stock numbers or a popular option is exporting organic nitrogen where there are farmers that are suitable to import.