Speaking at the Agricultural Science Association (ASA) conference in Naas on Thursday, Kilkenny dairy farmer Seán Cummins spoke passionately about the farmer’s perspective of water quality.
“I can’t speak for all farmers, but, in my experience, there’s been a big shift in attitude [towards water quality] in the last two to three years.”
“Farmers are custodians, they want to leave a legacy, they’re in it for the long term, but they need the opportunity to solve the problem. There’s a willingness to invest, but we need assurances and time.
“We can’t invest and in three years’ time say, you had 200 cows but now you have 170,” Cummins said.
The current nitrates derogation extension was granted in December 2025 and will run until the end of 2028. If the derogation is lost, approximately 7,000 farms would be faced with either dropping stock numbers or securing more land.
No guarantee
“The farming community is one of the strongest for camaraderie and working together. The worst situation of all will be if were pitting families and communities against each other to rent or buy land that’s above cost to abide by regulation,” Cummins said.
“There’s no guarantee either that if we go back to a 170kg N/ha stocking rate that water quality will improve one tiny bit,” he continued.
He urged co-ops, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture to ramp up communication with farmers.
Instead of giving national-level advice, he encouraged the organisations to focus on getting neighbouring farms together, share the data of their own local catchments with them and give them advice on how to make real improvements.
Initiatives such as the Farming for Water EIP, FarmElevate programme from Tirlán and the ASSAP programme are becoming increasingly popular on farms, offering local level advice.
Watch Seán Cummins speaking at the conference below.
SHARING OPTIONS