Farmers to begin navigating Fertiliser Register regulations

It’s disappointing from a farmer's perspective that there is no online calculator available either from Teagasc or from the Department of Agriculture to allow a farmer to navigate all of these complexities.

Farmers will have received letters in the post this past week announcing the start up of the fertiliser register. 

The register was on the cards for a number of years and as such it doesn’t come as a surprise, but is in truth an inconvenience at best or for those more discommoded it’s an annoyance. The annoyance springs from having to adhere to more oversight and yet more regulations, annoyance at having to adhere to another deadline, and annoyance for those not computer literate at having to engage an advisor to sign up to the register. 

The biting reality is that the regulations are signed into law and farmers will have to come to terms with it. Every purchase of fertiliser from September 1 must now be recorded on the Department of Agriculture’s database, as a farmer will need to use their fertiliser registered user number in order to make a purchase and merchants will need to report such purchases. 

The amount of land available to each farmer is already known per each farmer’s Basic Payment application form. For beef and dairy farmers the quantity of animals is known from the Department of Agriculture AIMS system. 

With fertiliser purchases now set to be recorded, the Department of Agriculture will be able to keep track on whether individual farmers have exceeded their fertiliser quotas in an instant. The amount of allowable fertiliser a farmer can use is complicated and depends on grassland stocking rate, other crops, amount of bought-in feed, whether the farmer is in derogation or not, whether they have undertaken soil tests or not and where they have, the results of those tests will influence the allowable fertiliser. 

Throw into the mix that allowable chemical fertiliser rates have dropped by 10% in the past year, and the quotient of organic fertiliser deemed to be produced per dairy cow is now geared based on their output or more correctly the farmer's election for what bracket they have selected to fit into for 2023 and there’s the making of a serious headache in staying on the right side of the regulations. 

It’s disappointing from a farmer's perspective that there is no online calculator available either from Teagasc or from the Department of Agriculture to allow a farmer to navigate all of these complexities. The Nitrates Explanatory Handbook doesn’t give any worked examples and refers readers to the tables within the regulations themselves without providing the tables within the handbook. 

Farmers need these resources even more than they need the regulations. Sure farmers along with their advisors can in theory prepare a fertiliser budget at the start of the year but changes happen during the year, such as holding onto animals longer than planned or increasing or indeed decreasing stock numbers which can push the farmer from one allowance band to the next. 

By providing farmers with online calculators, a better outcome will be obtained where farmers can self-regulate and make sure they stay within their fertiliser allowances rather than being found offside and likely fined for overstepping the mark. 

It’s the equivalent of a driver having to look up maps and regulations in order to figure out the speed limit for a given stretch of road as opposed to being able to rely on clearly visible speed signs. Farmers want to stay on the right side of the regulations and they deserve to be helped to understand the regulations as it impacts their own farm.