Livestock farmers in NI who want to avail of free soil sampling this winter need to register before midday on Monday 19 June.

On offer is a whole farm soil sampling and analysis service, to include advice on lime and nutrient applications. Training will also be made available prior to sampling and following receipt of results.

The service is funded under NI’s £4.1m share of the EU Exceptional Adjustment Aid package announced last July. That money was specifically allocated to dairy and other livestock farmers to help stabilise markets and support small farms – it did not cover specialist arable growers, so they are unable to apply for this scheme. It will allow soil from up to 20,000 fields across NI to be sampled and analysed between November 2017 and February 2018.

The Agri Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) are administering the service and will be responsible for both the sampling of soils on-farm and the analysis in accredited laboratories. Registration for farmers opened on Wednesday and is available on the AFBI website at www.afbini.gov.uk.

The service will have two elements, the “open scheme” is for all livestock farmers in NI and the “catchment scheme” for farmers within specific areas of the Upper Bann river catchment. If the scheme is over-subscribed AFBI will prioritise applications in specific sub catchments in Upper Bann, followed by a random selection.

AFBI will notify applicants if they have been successful by 31 July 2017.

At present, it is intended that around 10,000 soil samples will be collected in each of two schemes. However, AFBI is keen to ensure that as many farmers as possible take part in the Upper Bann “catchment scheme”, so following the application process there is likely to be a separate process to try to recruit additional farmers in target areas.

In the “catchment scheme”, all samples will be collected by AFBI staff, and farmers will receive additional advice and guidance, to include farm maps to highlight areas most vulnerable to nutrient loss.

The ultimate aim is to improve water quality by reducing the amount of nutrients (particularly phosphorus) lost into the river.

The “open scheme” is slightly different, with soil samples taken by an agent working on behalf of AFBI.

NI’s allocation of EU Exceptional Adjustment Aid must be spent before the European Commission’s deadline of 30 September 2017 so presumably DAERA plan to pay AFBI upfront for the service on offer.

The small dairy farmer scheme and the pig competitiveness scheme are also being funded by the £4.1m package and closed for applications on Wednesday.

The final aid package measure, the BVD persistently infected (PI) calf removal scheme, remains open until 30 September.