Change comes from many fronts and there may be no single year ever that will bring as much change in a single season. Most hinge around policy and pesticides. The most fundamental is the new CAP. It is a challenge to get one’s head around the new Basic Payment Scheme, but the reducing payments over the next five years will present an even bigger challenge. And tillage farmers have to do more to get less – the only sector of which this can be said.

Greening brings a new set of worries and challenges to many growers. Crop diversification forces a rethink on how many operate their farms and it indirectly imposes some form of rotation on most farms. While this is seen as a nuisance now, time may prove this imposition to be fundamentally good. Single-crop systems provide convenience but they also tend to nudge one towards very expensive production systems.

The need for crop diversification at farm levels also creates difficulties for those share-farming. Mechanisms have been found to get around the worst of these constraints, but these too impose new restrictions and challenges. Still, by year two many of the impositions will not appear to be so restrictive as individuals find the optimum solution for their situations.

The imposition of ecological focus areas adds work and complication for growers. Our Department of Agriculture has put together an online system that attempts to streamline the application process to help avoid non-qualifying applications.

But the system will also help to enable payments be made on time. And much of what needs to be done with qualifying landscape features is a once-off exercise.

New pesticide legislation brings a lot of new impositions also. Last November all pesticide advisers had to register with the Department and by the 26 November 2015 all professional users of pesticides and all pesticide distributors must register with the Department.

Registration as a professional user (a sprayer operator applying professional agrochemicals) is a relatively simple process, but it requires that the applicant has completed a sprayer training course. Many have met this requirement from previous training courses with Teagasc (an estimated 14,000 individuals), but proof of participation is needed. This is not needed to actually apply, but will be sought in the event of an inspection.

Individuals who do not have a course completed can still attend a course run by any of the registered providers, which can be found on the Department’s SUD website. It should be noted that anyone can still purchase agrochemicals but only registered professional users can apply them.

Sprayer testing is another obligation. While all sprayers should be in good working order, a completed test will be compulsory from November 2016. On passing a test, a certificate is issued, along with a sticker which is placed on the sprayer. The sticker and certificate must go with the sprayer if it is sold. All other pesticide application devices will also be brought in for compulsory testing in time.

Buffer zones are now being implemented for all pesticides by drains, streams etc. Each product has its own individual buffer requirement when applied through standard nozzles at full recommended rate. An initiative introduced by the Department will enable sprayer operators minimise this buffer through the use of reduced rates and specified reduced drift nozzles. Care is still needed on the choice of products.

After all of these things, there remains the need to do the best possible job for your crops. We must remain aware of the presence of resistances in diseases, weeds and pests. Draza is removed from the toolbox later this year and it may be only a matter of time before other actives are withdrawn at re-registration.