Farmers will most likely see an increase in slurry storage requirements as a result of ongoing research to determine if current storage requirement figures are accurate.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has requested Teagasc to complete research on whether the current 0.33m³/cow/week requirement for farms is accurate.
Currently there are four geographical zones that require different levels of storage, they are zones with a 16-week; 18-week; 20-week and 22-week requirement.
The actually amount of slurry storage that is required is based on the following:
- 0.33m³/week for dairy cow;
- 0.26m³/week for over two-year-old animals;
- 0.26m³/week for animals aged 18-26 months;
- 0.15m³/week for animals aged 6-18 months.
Although many farms are within the legal compliance requirement, pressure on tanks can be quite significant if weather conditions are not good when the slurry ban is lifted, which may indicate that the current figure being used is no longer accurate.
Ongoing research from Teagasc is monitoring around 100 farms and the level of slurry being produced on these farms.
Over the last 20 years or so, cow performance and intakes have increased which has likely resulted in increased amounts of slurry being produced.
Based on the research of this trial, is it likely that the DAFM will increase the storage requirement/cow.
Sample farm
The current figure of 48L/cow/day for a farm that is required to have 20 weeks’ storage, would mean 6,720L/cow is required for that period.
For a 100-cow herd, that means that 672,000L or 177,524 gallons (gal) of storage is required.
If this farm has 15 weanling heifers and 15 in-calf heifers, they are given a weekly storage requirement of 0.15m³ and 0.26m³ per animal respectively.
This converts to 150L/slurry/week for the weanling heifers and 260L/slurry/week for the in-calf heifers.
This means 21,000L of slurry storage or 5,548gal would be required for the weanling heifers for the 20-week-period and 36,400L or 9,616gal would be required for the in-calf heifers.
If that storage requirement for a cow were to increase by 20% or 9.6L/cow/day as a result of research, that would mean the same farm would have to increase its storage capacity by 134,400L or 35,504gal.
For both groups of heifers, the storage requirement would increase by 11,480L or 3,033gal, meaning that the total storage requirement for this farm would increase by 145,880L or 38,538gal.
This example is based a 20% increase, the potential rise could be less or higher than this estimate, depending on the results of the research.
Also, the current figure does not include rainwater entering tanks, which is an issue on some farms, as it decreases slurry storage capacity.
TAMS
Currently to avail of the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS), farms are required to have 10% extra slurry storage capacity.
Farmers should be keeping a close eye on the ongoing research from Teagasc as investment in storage may be required in the near future.
For now, you need to ensure that water is not entering your tanks, thus decreasing the capacity your slurry tanks can hold.