From midnight on Wednesday 14 October, the spreading of slurry will be banned. Farmers in Northern Ireland have one more day to get their slurry out.

The forecast for the next few days is reasonably good, so conditions for spreading will be suitable. However, land is wet enough in many parts after heavy rain over the past few weeks and more rain on Sunday night.

Farmers who are in a nitrates derogation must use low-emission slurry spreading methods. These are a trailing shoe, dribble bar or injector.

From now on, using a splash plate on a derogation farm for anything other than spreading soiled water is banned.

Hardcore surfaces

Farmyard manure can be spread for another fortnight. Farmyard manure cannot be left in heaps in fields or on hardcore surfaces after 1 November.

The most suitable fields to apply either slurry or farmyard manure are those that are closed up for the winter.

The slurry will give a boost to growth and there will be no fears about contaminating the grass, as the next grazing will not take place until next spring.

At this stage, farmers should have 30% to 40% of their farm closed for the winter and they should be on track to have 70% closed by the end of October.

This will ensure sufficient recovery of grass on early closed fields before growth rates decrease. This is the grass that will be available to the herd next spring.