Farmers secure 2-week extension to slurry deadline

STEPS have been taken to ease the problems of farmers having to spread slurry on land saturated by the heavy rain of recent months.

Landowners are obliged to have all slurry spreading completed by Wednesday, under EU environmental regulations.

But due to the ground conditions, many of them are struggling to complete their normal spreading operations before the October 15 deadline.

Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith, who opened the Bord Bia co-ordinated Beef Expo Ireland show and conference in Kilkenny yesterday, announced a two-week extension to the deadline.

He said the announcement followed consultation with Environment Minister John Gormley.

Teagasc earlier confirmed that poor ground conditions are preventing farmers from travelling the land with machinery for spreading.

Livestock have been housed by night since mid-September in some areas and many are expected to be housed full time from late October.

Some farmers have up to 40% of their slurry tank capacity full already.

Mr Smith said the adverse weather has caused significant hardship for farmers and has made it extremely difficult to carry out regular farming activity.

It has caused flooding of farmlands in many areas or left land waterlogged, liable to severe damage by machinery and unsuitable for the spreading of livestock manures for long periods of time.

Mr Smith said the two-week extension will allow farmers an opportunity, weather and ground conditions permitting, to complete land spreading activities.

However, the IFA president Pádraig Walshe said the extension to the end of October was totally inadequate.

Meanwhile, Mr Smith announced he is to apply to the European Commission to have Ireland officially declared free of brucellosis in cattle from next April.

“From a situation where recently we had more than 1,000 herd breakdowns in a single year, there have been no confirmed outbreaks of brucellosis in Ireland since April 2006,” he said.