Members of the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) are “extremely uptight” regarding proposed new rules around slurry spreading close to designated sites, the farm lobby organisation has said.

The DAERA proposals are included in its draft ammonia strategy currently out for public consultation.

It suggests a ban on the spreading of manure within 50m of an internationally designated site from January 2025, and that all slurry applied within 1km of these sites will have to be spread using low-emission slurry spreading equipment (LESSE) from the same date.

In a statement, UFU president David Brown pointed out that spreading of manure on arable land will also be caught up in this ban, and called on DAERA to “go back to the drawing board” on some of these proposals.

The UFU is also concerned about plans to ban slurry spreading using splash plates from January 2026.

“LESSE is extremely expensive to purchase with no firm commitment to financial support being made by DAERA. This proposal will hit smaller farmers hard across NI and needs to be re-examined,” said Brown.”

Meetings

Following criticism from the UFU regarding the notice given to farmers of three public events organised by DAERA at the end of January to outline their ammonia proposals, a further two have been added to the diary.

The DAERA meetings will take place on Monday 13 February at Greenmount Campus and Wednesday 15 February at Loughry Campus.

Both meetings start at 7.30pm.

“We encourage everyone to attend the DAERA meetings next week to help ensure that appropriate changes are made to this proposed ammonia strategy,” said Brown.