A further cut to fertiliser limits should be considered for “certain grassland farmers” due to the benefits gained from increasingly common practices, such as incorporating clover into swards and using Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS), the Nitrates Expert Group has said.
The group’s members recommended that the caps imposed on yearly grassland nitrogen application rates should be considered from 2026 in line with “Teagasc research that is being finalised” in the area, but did not clarify which groups of grassland farmers could be facing a fertiliser cut.
However, the group warned that reducing chemical nitrogen allowances for tillage farmers would have a “significant negative economic impact” on farms and that these allowances are already based on levels set at an “agronomic and environmental optimum”.
Derogation farmers should have to know their farm’s nutrient balance by law to help ensure that excess nutrients are not spread on land, the group also said in its recommendations to ministers.
Nutrient balance refers to the difference between nutrient inputs put into the system through fertiliser, feed or clover and the nutrients that leave in slurry, crops, livestock or milk.
The group maintains that improved nutrient management is particularly important for “those farming at higher stocking rates which are more likely to have higher nutrient balances” but that non-derogation farmers should be incentivised to better balance nutrient inputs with off-takes through the Farming for Water EIP.
SHARING OPTIONS