Ireland has secured its nitrates derogation for the next four years, with a review at the end of 2023.
The news was announced by Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue last Thursday, with applications for the 2022 derogation now open.
The derogation allows farmers to stock their farms higher than 170kg organic nitrogen per hectare, up to a maximum of 250kg organic N/ha.
Farmers in a derogation need to adhere to stricter rules around slurry and fertiliser use, with 10% of farmers in a derogation set to be inspected annually.
Details of the new measures are set out in the Nitrates Action Programme, published on 11 March.
Many of these measures apply to all farmers, not just those in derogation.
Slurry
One of the changes in this review is that the nitrogen content in 1t of cattle slurry is reduced from 5kg to 2.4kg.
This means that farmers who export slurry to remain under 170kg or 250kg organic nitrogen per hectare will have to export more than twice the previous volume of slurry in order to have the same amount of nitrogen exported.
SHARING OPTIONS