The incessant rain of the last few weeks has really taken its toll on farms in the north and west, with large numbers of cattle housed, second and third cuts yet to be taken and grain still to be harvested.

When seeing the devastating effect of recent floods in other parts of the world, or even the flooding event in the northwest at the end of August, having to house cattle early seems frivolous in comparison. However, unless the weather improves significantly in the weeks ahead, what is currently an irritation for many farmers, could turn into a real problem early next year. While plenty of fodder has been made in 2017, normal winter budgets don’t usually account for starting to eat into it before the end of August.

Coming up are various cut-off dates, the first of which is the end of the period for spreading fertiliser containing nitrogen and phosphorus, which is midnight on Friday 15 September. After that is the slurry spreading deadline of midnight on 15 October, followed by the 31 October deadline for the spreading of farmyard manure.

Given that many cattle are housed, fields are wet and in some cases grass is yet to be harvested, complying with the ban on slurry spreading could be particularly difficult this autumn.

While farmers should do their very best to stay within the 15 October deadline, and there will be little excuse if the weather picks up over the next few weeks, there is a certain level of flexibility in the rules.

It means that under exceptional circumstances it is possible in NI to spread slurry during the closed period. Anyone who thinks that they might not be able to meet the 15 October deadline should start gathering evidence now, to include things like housing dates for cattle or pictures of wet or flooded land.