The Department of Agriculture published a reminder on Friday advising farmers that completed nitrates declarations for the movement of organic fertiliser, temporary movement of animals and short-term rental grazing agreements for 2021 must be submitted by 31 December 2021.

Movement of organic fertilisers

There has been a couple of significant changes to the manner in which the movement of organic fertilisers must be recorded over the last 12 to 18 months.

Farmers availing of a nitrates derogation have an earlier deadline of 31 October to submit their records, while the deadline for all other farmers remains 31 December 2021.

The recording of movements has also moved online since earlier this year and must be completed through the Department’s agfood.ie facility. This can be completed by the farmers concerned or approved agents acting on their behalf.

Take note that it is not sufficient for the farmer exporting the organic manure to only record the movement – it also has to be accepted on the online system by the importing farmer by 31 December 2021 to be deemed valid.

There has been an issue with the recording of movements of organic pig manures, which was highlighted earlier this week in an Oireachtas question by Deputy Jennifer Murnane O’Connor.

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConologue said that due to ongoing IT work, hardcopy Record 3 forms are being accepted in the case of movements of pig slurry, with the deadline for recording movements of organic pig manures remaining 31 December 2021.

Minister McConalogue said he hoped the online recording system would be available shortly for pig farmers and that notification would issue as soon as this becomes available.

Record 4 and Record 5 forms

Record 4 and Record 5 forms relating to temporary movements of cattle or temporary grazing agreements can be found here.

These forms can be submitted by email to nitrates@agriculture.gov.ie or sent by post to Nitrates Section, Dept of Agriculture, Food & Marine, Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford, Y35 PN52.

Farmers are advised to obtain proof of postage, with the only acceptable proof of purchase by the Department being a Swift Post receipt or registered post receipt. Useful soft-copy and video manuals can also be found online on the link above.