The expert working group set up to develop a land management strategy for NI is to assist DAERA officials with implementing the proposals recommended by the group in October.

The main issue is access to funding to deliver the proposals set out in the group’s report, with ministers at Stormont noting that finding funding streams to match the ambition of the report will be challenging.

However, working group chair John Gilliland told MLAs on the Assembly’s agriculture committee last week that public money is needed to drive the behavioural change needed for better land management. This includes incentives for long-term land leasing, funding for soil sampling across NI and grants for processing nutrients out of high phosphate farms.

Gilliland maintained that all recommendations in the report make economic sense. Forecasts suggest that the target of increasing the average annual grass yield on NI farms from 5.1t DM/ha to 6.1t DM/ha will allow total farm incomes to increase by £120m to £160m per year.

“I haven’t got a detailed costing of the exact figure but we are quite confident that the lift in farm income would show a payback within five years for any public expenditure to go into this,” he said.

Private investment

The former UFU president acknowledged that private investment will also be needed by farmers in areas such as reseeding and applying lime. “This is about a partnership, it’s not just about pitching the public purse,” he said.

Ammonia

The expert working group is also carrying out additional work for the Department looking at how to reduce ammonia emissions from the NI agriculture industry.

Gilliland said that ammonia emissions from the pig and poultry sectors are already regulated through planning permission for buildings. “When 70% of emissions [in NI] come from ruminants, the ruminant sectors are going to have to put their house in order,” he said.

Gilliland said that the cheapest way of reducing ammonia emissions is to use a trailing shoe for spreading slurry as opposed to a splash plate, and added that this also delivers improved grass yields.