There is good news for farmers grappling with staying within stocking rate limits as per Ireland’s Nitrates Action Programme, with the Department currently “developing approaches” for real-time nitrates figures to be made available on MyAgfood.ie.

The announcement was contained in an information note released by the Department to inform farmers that interim bovine nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) statements for the period 1 January to 31 August 2026 were published last week on the Department’s online facility, MyAgfood.ie.

The Department added that such developments “will allow future statements and projections to be made on MyAgFood.ie, that will include ovine as well as bovine nitrates data. Farmers will be notified in due course when these figures are available”.

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The fact that these projections will include ovine data will be greatly welcomed by farmers with a high stocking rate, as at present ovine data is based on sheep census returns or a farmer submitting a detailed account to the Department of their flock numbers by animal category on a monthly basis.

Key information

Keeping informed of N and P production and staying within organic nitrogen production limits is a key requirement of complying with the Nitrates Action Programme. The level of organic nitrogen produced on farms in a calendar year is also an important factor in determining fertiliser allowances and influencing other rules, such as spreading slurry with low emission slurry spreading (LESS) equipment.

Farmers with a grassland stocking rate of upwards of 100kg organic nitrogen (N) per hectare (ha) in the previous calendar year are obliged to apply slurry via LESS equipment. The exception to this is where for operator health and safety reasons it is deemed inappropriate to apply slurry on a steeply sloping grassland parcel.

Dairy cow band

The Department information note issued with the N and P statement announcement states that a small minority of dairy farmers who have not yet confirmed their herd’s dairy cow band for 2026 have been defaulted to the highest band of 106kg N/cow. It advises such farmers that in the event of the highest band not being appropriate to confirm the appropriate band for their herd via the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) website.

The information note also said that “appropriate adjustments have been applied to interim N and P statements for dairy farmers that have opted to receive recognition for managing crude protein in the concentrates fed to their cows”.

Record 4 forms

Meanwhile, on a related topic the Department issued correspondence with Farm Advisory System (FAS) advisors last week to inform them that there is revised record 4 forms for the temporary movement of ovines and bovines to temporary grazing.

Where a farmer wishes to gain credit for the nitrates produced, while animals are grazing on the holding supplying the temporary grazing then a record 4 form must be completed in full and returned to the Nitrates section.

The relevant forms highlight that “where cattle are being moved to a holding which does not have cattle, record 4 (Notification of Temporary Movement of cattle) must be used”.