Farm and forestry contractors are “practical people”, and they will “drive solutions to the water quality challenge”, according to the Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI).
In its submission on Ireland’s Nitrates Action Programme, the FCI said it included strategies that have “practical applications for change”.
The association said it believes that it is time for “clear acknowledgement” of the role of contractors, so that they can “take on their responsibilities and use their technology experience and investment willingness” to help achieve an enhanced water environment for all of Ireland.
Its submission looks at slurry storage and management; lack of slurry storage capacity on farms, water quality issues in Irish forestry, soiled water management and investment in farmer and contractor education, along with several other areas.
FCI submission points
On the issue of slurry storage and management, the FCI’s submission says that the “fundamental issue is that the current Nitrates Directive calendar farming system of closed periods is simply not working; extending this system will not ensure that it can function any more satisfactorily”.
“This system is too simplistic, it is non-scientific, it has been proven not to be practical at farm level and it is now clearly not sustainable,” according to the association.
The FCI national chair John Hughes said that “the fact that the current system is not working has been confirmed by the deterioration in water quality as measured by the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA]”.
The FCI said it believes that bringing the closing date forward to September 30, for 2022 followed by September 15, in 2023 will mean “that all of this additional slurry will once again be attempted to be spread from January 15, irrespective of weather and ground conditions”.
This is “because slurry storage capacity on farms is currently not there and cannot be provided in this short timescale”.
“Even larger volumes of slurry, from the extended storage period, will then be applied from January 15, across zones A, B and C, leading to rainfall induced run-off into watercourse, streams and rivers,” the FCI added.
“This will also mean a huge demand for slurry spreading machine capacity from existing farm contractor providers at a time when skilled labour is less available.
“On many dairy farms, there is no labour available at that time of the calving season to operate the many grant-aided LESS [low emission slurry spreading] machines, so this work will be carried out by farm contractors, creating a bottleneck of activity at a time when weather conditions are rarely ideal. Extending the closed period in this way only adds more environmental challenges.”
The national chair added that what is lacking is “a clear independent and technology-based, decision-making process to identify the best land-spreading options”.
Technology-based solution systems
The FCI said it supports the evidence from the Agricultural Catchments Programme “which indicates that supporting farmers to make better decisions regarding how they manage nutrient applications is likely to be the single area with the greatest potential to improve outcomes for water quality on Irish farms – delivering better profits for the farmer while reducing risk of nutrient loss to water”.
Meanwhile, “farm contractors regularly react to urgent requests from their client farmers to alleviate slurry storage problems due to significant under-investment in the necessary slurry storage capacity on many high-output farms”, the FCI continued.
“This latter issue can also be one of animal welfare as the cattle can be standing in liquid slurry.
“This clearly confirms that there is an absence of criteria for good decision-making in relation to slurry spreading on many Irish farms, in terms of slurry application systems, timing and application rates, and/or in-field application strategies by applying slurry manures or fertiliser too close to a water source.”
The FCI said it is seeking to work with the department and other research bodies to develop technology-based solution systems that combine information about the slurry volumes and its constituents and source “in an integrated way that can be fully traceable”.
“The association believes that the development of a new technology option would allow farmers and their farm contractors to make the correct decisions to manage the process of spreading the slurry in a more scientific way, based on the ability of the soils to absorb the nutrients and reduce nutrient loss to the environment.
“The entire process can be linked to a FCI farm contractor registration process which is in preparation,” the association added.