If you have not already done so for the winter ahead, now is the time to assess slurry storage facilities on your farm. The Ploughing often marks the time of the year when farmers will look forward to the coming winter and replace old or damaged slats. However, it is also a good time to assess storage capacity on the farm.

Over the past eight years, we have seen a growth of approximately 350,000 dairy cows. This requires additional slurry storage capacity of approximately 450 million gallons.

This requirement is to cater for the additional slurry and soiled water produced from these cows. Has this slurry storage capacity been constructed on farms?

Under nitrates regulations, the requirement for farmers in Cavan is to have 22 weeks of storage for organic fertilisers. This requirement varies from 16 weeks to 22 weeks, depending where in the country you are located.

While the conditions last winter and this spring meant that cows and slurry could be got out early, this should not draw farmers into a false sense of security and they should still be proactive to ensure they can cope with a difficult spring.

Any farmer who is in derogation is legally required to have sufficient storage for this winter.

Effluent

It is also important that farmers are conscious of effluent run-off from silage made over the past few weeks. The moisture content of grass at this time of the year can generally be high, which can lead to an increase in the amount of effluent from the resulting silage.

In many cases this year, due to the sheer bulk of material being ensiled on farms, both pits and bale silage will take up more space on farmyards. There is also a growing tendency to pile grass higher. All of these combine to cause greater problems for effluent collection.

If rain falling on the yard in front of the pit is allowed to mix with the effluent, it will boost the volume of effluent that has to be handled. It will also do more damage to the yard surface.