There are increasing concerns that the position taken by DAERA’s NI Environment Agency (NIEA) towards the building of new livestock housing could effectively put a stop to further growth in the industry.

At the centre of the issue are concerns over ammonia emissions from livestock housing leading to nitrogen deposition which is damaging sensitive habitats. According to the NIEA, most designated sites and priority habitats in NI have now reached or exceeded the critical level of ammonia.

It is the current working position of NIEA to only accept applications to planning that produce up to 10% of the critical level of ammonia at a designated site. However, the most recent NIEA guidance notes that “this position is under review and these levels may reduce”.

With planning permission required for any new house over 500m2, it has become somewhat of a postcode lottery whether an application will make it through planning or not. As well as the proximity to a designated site (7.5km) or priority habitat (2km), NIEA advice to planners is also to look at the cumulative impact – in simple terms, if there are already a number of intensive livestock houses in the area, there might be little point in applying.

“We try to identify these issues at an early stage. For some people, there just isn’t any point taking it further. We are fast heading towards a point where NIEA will block all large new agricultural buildings in all of NI,” said one local architect.

The other option taken up by some applicants has been to include expensive scrubbers to remove/reduce ammonia emissions from the new building. These mitigation factors could help an applicant get through the planning process. However, other examples of good practice, such as using a trailing shoe to spread slurry, or putting a roof on a slurry store, are not currently taken into account by planners (on advice from NIEA), which is a cause of frustration for farmers.

Coming down the tracks is a second tranche of Tier 2 of the Farm Business Improvement Scheme (FBIS) for large projects with grant up to £250,000. Unless things change, it looks as if one part of Government is encouraging industry growth, while another part is blocking future development.

While farming leaders acknowledge that agriculture is the main contributor to ammonia emissions in NI, and that there are issues to be addressed, much more fundamental is the lack of communication from NIEA and lack of confidence in their processes. In particular, just what is the scientific basis on which decisions are made?

“We need to understand and get the science right. This issue is the biggest threat to progress in our industry in a generation,” claimed one leading farming representative speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal.