Slurry export form deadline

Farmers who exported slurry from their farm in 2017 must submit records of organic manure movements to the NI Environment Agency (NIEA) by the end of January.

“If the records are not submitted to the NIEA, the slurry export will not be included when calculating a farm’s nitrogen loading. Farmers could then find themselves in breach of the rules and they could also face a higher risk of inspection,” warned Ulster Farmers’ Union environment chair Wilbert Mayne.

Farmers are allowed a manure nitrogen loading limit of 170kgN/ha/year, or else 250kgN/ha/year if a derogation is applied for by the end of February. Manure exports can be submitted to the NIEA through DAERA online services and records must include information such as date moved, type of livestock manure, quantity, transporter’s name and address and importer’s name and farm business ID. The UFU can help members with the various calculations, if required.

DAERA to review ANC

Plans are in place within DAERA to conduct a review of the equality and human rights implications of ending the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) scheme, Sinn Féin MLA Declan McAleer has said.

Claims for the final year of ANC payments were made by farmers in Severely Disadvantaged Areas in the 2017 Single Application Form and will be issued in March 2018. These are transitional payments funded from a reduced budget of £8m, compared with an annual budget of £20m in previous years.

“If the scheme ends as planned this year, these already disadvantaged farmers will be severely hit so it is our view that the department needs to urgently review its plans in line with its equality obligations,” McAleer said.

AFBI chief executive to retire this year

The chief executive of the Agri Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) Dr Sinclair Mayne is to retire in 2018.

“I have agreed with the board chair to remain in post until a successor is appointed, which is likely to be in the summer,” Mayne said in a note circulated among AFBI staff on Monday.

He was appointed chief executive of AFBI in October 2016, replacing Professor Elaine Watson who had held the role for only four months.

Greenmount dairy unit open days

The dairy unit at CAFRE Greenmount is to host open days for farmers on 24 and 25 January. The event will focus on heifer rearing, dry cow management, calving management, feed efficiency and the performance of Greenmount’s 200-cow dairy herd.

Average yield in the herd is currently 8,777 litres per cow per year from 2.7 tonnes of concentrates.

The herd is split into three groups with the freshly calved and high-yielder groups fed first- and second-cut silage, plus maize silage and dairy blend. Late-lactation cows are fed second-cut silage, plus in-parlour concentrates to yield.

Tours of the dairy unit will start from 10.30am each day and last two hours. Groups will leave every 20 minutes and the last group will leave at 1.30pm. A light lunch will be served after each tour.

No change in number of farm deaths in NI

Seven of the 10 fatal workplace accidents in NI last year occurred on farms, according to figures obtained from the Health and Safety Executive for NI.

The total number of fatal farm accidents in NI last year is the same as 2016, but the figure remains significantly lower than the high of 12 seen in both 2011 and 2012.

Keith Morrison, chair of the Farm Safety Partnership, said that the group would continue to campaign in 2018 to raise awareness of the four main causes of farm accidents. These are slurry, animals, falls and equipment, which forms the acronym SAFE.

“It is clear that the increased awareness of dangers on farm is still not translating quickly enough into changed behaviours on farms,” he said.

New DAERA HQ nears completion

The construction of DAERA’s new headquarters in Ballykelly, Co Derry, is nearing completion with the first tranche of 240 staff expected to take up posts in the building in March 2018.

Plans for the relocation from Dundonald House in Belfast to the former military site in Ballykelly were first announced in September 2012 as part of a decentralisation programme by the then agriculture minister Michelle O’Neill.

The new building will have capacity for 600 staff and comes with a capital cost of £21.5m, and an extra £11.8m set aside to cover associated staff costs. With most DAERA staff in Dundonald House unwilling to make the move to Ballykelly, the first tranche of posts in the new building will be administration staff that can be easily transferred across government departments.