The nutrient management plan (NMP) submit button will launch in the coming days after months of gestation.

At the Agricultural Consultants Association (ACA) annual conference in Birr last week, ACA president Laura Johnston expressed concerns regarding the launch. She claimed that under the terms and conditions of GLAS, NMPs should have been completed by 31 January 2016 for farmers in GLAS I and 31 March for farmers in GLAS II. Otherwise, no further GLAS payment will issue.

With the system now live, Johnston says farmers waiting on payments in GLAS I will be in breach of their contract and will not be paid. Similarly, after 31 March, farmers in GLAS II without a submitted NMP will be in breach of contract.

All 38,000 farmers in the first two tranches of the scheme waiting on the final 15% of payments will also be in breach of their contracts if they do not submit NMPs, according to Johnston.

She argued that the Department will have to allow leeway for these farmers because the system was not in place to give adequate time to submit plans. Correspondence this week from the Department failed to agree or disagree with Johnston’s claims.

Payments

There are still thousands of farmers waiting on first instalment GLAS and AEOS payments. Progress has been very slow and the Department insists payments will continue on a weekly basis until the backlog is cleared.

Farmers who have been paid their first instalment and are waiting on the final 15% of payment will have to wait too. The Department said balancing payments will issue when all 2016 inspections have been completed in May 2017.

Wild bird cover

Farmers in GLAS I and II with wild bird cover on their farms can now allow livestock into the area where parcels are going to be fully replanted. The main reason for allowing access of livestock now is to aid the decomposition of the trash. This will make it much easier to resow before the 31 May deadline.