Department rows back on N allowances for 2024

Last week, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue announced a row-back on the cuts to the maximum nitrogen fertiliser rates. A 5% cut to the maximum rates had been announced in February, with the minister saying that the new lower limits would be applied for 2024 at the end of the year. As a result, nutrient management plans (NMP) for 2024 had incorporated the 5% cut.

The 5% cut was to be in addition to the 10% cut already introduced in 2022, meaning that the maximum N rate in most nutrient management plans for this year was 15% lower than the 2021 amount that could be applied.

For farms stocked greater than 170kg N/ha, they were allowed to apply up to 250kg N/ha up to the end of 2021. For those stocked lower than 170kg N/ha, they could apply up to 206kg N/ha. In 2022, these allowances changed to what is outlined in Table 1 with the further 5% cut reducing the allowances further for 2024.

Last week’s announcement means that the 5% cut has been delayed until next year, meaning that farmers can apply the higher rate for 2024. With about six weeks remaining in the permitted period for spreading nitrogen, farmers need to act fast if they are to make use of the additional allowance.

NMP

My understanding is that most nutrient management plans were drawn up based on the 5% reduction on chemical N. Therefore, the simplest way to work out actual allowances for 2024 would be to increase the amount of chemical N permitted by 5%.

The Irish Farmers Journal has asked the Department of Agriculture if the actual NMP needs to be physically updated but is still awaiting a response. Either way, the extra allowance is there and farmers should make use of it.

Nitrogen is the cheapest form of feed supplement available and in years where fodder is scarce can prove valuable. The earlier the N is applied the better from a response point of view and the minister encouraged farmers not to wait until the end of the closed period to apply the additional allowance.

Essentially, farmers stocked greater than 170kg N/ha will have an additional 13kg or 14kg N/ha to apply if they are to fully utilise their N allowances. With more or less just two applications of nitrogen left before the closed period commences, farmers that need to grow more grass for silage or for grazing should apply the additional N in the next application.

The grass situation on farms is improving and many farms that were in a grass deficit three or four weeks ago are now approaching a grass surplus. Spreading additional nitrogen will drive on grass growth further at an important time of the year.

In good conditions, we could expect a 30kg N/ha grass growth response to every 1kg of N/ha of nitrogen applied. Therefore, an additional 14kg N/ha could grow 420kg/ha of grass. On a 40ha farm that’s an extra 16.8t of grass grown. Not all of that will be utilised either for grazing or for silage but it’s still a substantial amount of feed.

It’s important to note that the exact response to nitrogen will be determined by the amount of perennial ryegrass in the sward and the underlying soil fertility. Best responses will be to fields with good soil fertility and good grass species.

At a cost of about €1.10 per kilo of N, the cost of growing the extra grass is 3.7c per kilo of dry matter. To put this in context, buying a round bale of silage for €40/bale is costing 20c/kg DM. At a cost of about €24 to make a round bale of silage (mowing, raking, baling/wrapping and plastic) that’s putting the value of the grass in the bale at €16/bale or 8c/kg DM.

So, for farmers that are short of silage and looking at their options, their first option should be to make sure they have fully utilised their N allowances.

When one looks at the figures for fertiliser sales nationally, farmers have reduced the amount of nitrogen they are spreading by figures far greater than the changes to regulations. Nitrogen sales have reduced by 30% between 2021 and 2023 compared to a 10% cut in the regulated amount that can be applied.

While undoubtedly helping to reduce emissions and fertiliser costs, this reduction in fertiliser use has not necessarily been a good move from a farm profit perspective, particularly where clover hasn’t made up the shortfall in growth. As demonstrated above, buying in silage or meal to fill a fodder deficit is a very expensive way of feeding animals when there could be scope to grow more grass on the existing land area.

Fodder budgets

The key thing is to work out the scale of the fodder deficit on the farm. There is no point in applying extra nitrogen if the farm doesn’t need the extra grass either for grazing or for silage.

Completing a fodder budget is the first step, see the example fodder budget in Table 2. It’s a two-step process; the first step is identifying how much silage is needed and the second step is identifying how much silage will be available by the start of winter. To measure silage in a pit, measure the length by the breadth by the average settled height and divide by 1.4 to get to tonnes.

The decision by the minister to row-back on the fertiliser reductions for 2024 is welcome but also shows the impact of poor policy. Effectively, we now have the Government encouraging farmers to spread more nitrogen, after years of telling them to cut back.

The Department doesn’t control the weather, but it does control policy and this is what frustrates me. The nitrogen reduction policy has been railroaded through despite the fact that numerous studies have shown the negative impact this will have on grass growth and farm profit. A Teagasc study in 2020 showed that a 10% cut in nitrogen would result in a 5% reduction in profitability. The reduction at farm level has been far greater.

OK, we need to improve water quality and reduce emissions but it’s increasingly obvious that the reduction in N use may not improve water quality quick enough, or at all. The mitigation strategies for less nitrogen such as managing clover and multispecies are still at research stage and still not fully understood. By rowing back, the minister is saying cutting N use is the wrong thing to do but by delaying it to next year, he’s just postponing the pain.

Warnings over policy decisions cannot be ignored.