There can be “no further encroachments” into areas not currently flagged in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) red maps, president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) Pat McCormack has said.
In July, the EPA published its assessment of the European Commission’s tests for whether an area should see a derogation stocking rate drop from 250kg nitrogen/ha to 220 kg N/ha from January.
The ICMSA stated that zones identified “most unfairly” in red as having to drop cannot be extended to give derogation farmers a degree of certainty to plan for 2024.
“As far as farmers are concerned the current map that we have been told to consult must represent the final draft, the final decision,” McCormack said.
“We cannot have farmers going week-to-week with some open-ended threat hanging over their farms.
“The current map had better be the last and only map that tips Irish farms into nitrates chaos.”
Last Friday saw Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue state that some areas indicated as being able to maintain the 250kg N/ha stocking rate in 2024 could fall after a mid-term review of the nitrates action plan due to be undertaken at national level this autumn.
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