As things stand, there will be no extension to the slurry spreading deadline.

Farmers have until Friday 14 October to have their slurry spread before the closed period starts on 15 October.

Despite the recent dry spell, many farmers in the border region and along the western seaboard have been unable to access fields to spread slurry.

The Irish Farmers Journal has learned that Minister Simon Coveney and his Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government are highly unlikely to extend the deadline beyond this Friday. Despite calls from farmer organisations and contractors, the Department has not sought an extension from the European Commission on the slurry spreading period.

A senior source in the department said that there had been “little political pressure” on the matter and the only hope for farmers getting to spread inside the closed period was if they made representations on a “case-by-case basis”.

IFA environment chair Thomas Cooney reacted angrily to the development on the lack of an extension.

“The fact of the matter here is that this issue has been raised with Minister Coveney at local and government level. If he had bothered to turn up at our pre-budget lobbying session, he would have heard it first-hand from farmers right across the country. However, the issue had to be subsequently raised with him directly,” Cooney said.

It is not just farmers who are under pressure, so too are slurry contractors. They have also been calling for an extension past this Friday to catch-up with the backlog of clients.

Seamus Donohoe who is a contractor covering Leitrim and Longford wants the deadline extended.

“I have enough work for the next week and the week after. The land has dried up now in this area but we do need an extension for the slurry,” Donohoe said.

Listen to Donegal-based Teagasc advisor Gary Fisher describe the situation for farmers in his county in our podcast below:

Listen to "Donegal farmers hit by poor weather" on Spreaker.

Many farmers have been faced with very difficult weather, especially in western regions, and being forced to house cattle during the summer months.

Impromptu housing has led to slurry tanks filling up and the wet weather up to recently has made spreading very difficult.

With drier weather over the past week, some farmers got an opportunity to lower the levels in tanks. However, because the demand for contractors has been high for the short weather window, some farmers will miss the opportunity to get slurry spread by the deadline.

From a logistics viewpoint alone, an extension would make the world of difference to these farmers to organise lowering of slurry levels.

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Full coverage: Slurry spreading