Dutch offer a vision of the future for Irish farmers

The phase out of the derogation exemption for Dutch farmers has brought major changes in the use of fertilisers there

Last year, Dutch livestock farmers were paying €30 per cubic metre (220 gallons of slurry) to get their manure off the farm. File picture

As the EU changes its rules, nowhere are farmers under more pressure than in the Netherlands.

Being allowed to spread large amounts of manure from their livestock on their fields helped the relatively small country to become one of the world's largest food exporters. But the drive for sustainability brought huge changes in the rules, leaving 87% of Dutch dairy farms producing more manure than they could use, as did 94% of Dutch pig and poultry farms.