In a change to the nitrates regulations, farmers will be required to prevent direct run-off from farm roadways to water from 1 January 2021. With the average length of a farm roadway in Ireland at 1.4km, farmers will have to make a significant investment to ensure that they are compliant.

The Department of Agriculture has urged farmers to take these new regulations into account now if working on farm roadways. Farmers will be required to camber roadways away from watercourses.

Jack Nolan of the nitrates division of the Department of Agriculture has admitted that issues may arise where a roadway is at the bottom of a hill or running near a drain and said that the Department will have to release specifications as to what can be done with roadways.

Roadway design

Last year, Teagasc released a dairy farm infrastructure handbook which examines in detail the design and materials that should be used when constructing a farm roadway.

While preventing run-off to watercourses will now be a priority, it is also important that water is not left sitting on roadways. Ensuring water flows off roadways quickly will extend the life of the roadway and also reduce the maintenance requirements.

Now may be a good time to assess farm roadways before the bulk of your cows get out on to the milking platform. While it may not be possible to fix all of the problems, certain parts of the roadway could be targeted. Look out for defects, such as potholes, a roadway that is level, wheel track depressions or cows walking on verges between the roadway and the fence. As herd sizes have increased, roadways may not have followed the same trend. According to Teagasc, typical widths of 3.7m up to 5m are recommended for herds up to 150 cows. In general, it is recommended that roadways are 0.5m wider for each extra 100 cows in the herd. The fence should then be kept 0.5m from the end of the roadway, to allow the full use of the roadways without cows walking on the grass verge.

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Good practice for the protection of waters