The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is developing plans for a “simple and efficient” mechanism to verify the appropriate nutrient excretion rate based on each dairy herd’s milk production.
According to the department, this mechanism aims to minimise any administrative burden being placed on farmers and to allow the earliest possible confirmation of which band each dairy farmer should fall into.
Currently, the excretion rate for all dairy cows is 89kg of organic nitrogen (N)/cow. But under proposed revisions to the Nitrates Action Programme (NAP), higher yielding cows will be given a higher level of N excretion due to their larger feed intake requirements.
The bands will be based on milk yield, replacing the current 89kg of organic N/cow, as follows:
Bands Milk yields Excretion rate Band 1 <4,500kg of milk 80kg organic N/cow Band 2 4,500-6,500kg of milk 92kg organic N/cow Band 3 >6,500kg of milk 106kg organic N/cow
On foot of queries from Agriland, a department spokesperson said this morning (Friday, October 28): “The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is aware that there are rumours circulating that every dairy farmer will be assigned to the highest band and be asked to prove otherwise. The rumours are simply not accurate.
The spokesperson continued: “From 2023, the excretion rate assigned to dairy cows in each dairy farmers’ herd will be based on one of three excretion bands, based on the average milk yield per dairy cow in the herd over a rolling three-year average.”
For 2023, the years in question are 2020, 2021 and 2022.
“It will not be possible for the department to confirm which band each dairy farmer should fall into until data regarding final milk deliveries to processors for 2022, and final AIM [Animal Identification and Movement] data for 2022 of animals into and out of dairy herds, become available.”
The spokesperson said that the department is committed to providing full details when its plans regarding nitrates banding have been suitably developed.
The department is encouraging dairy farmers to use its nitrates banding calculator to allow them to estimate the indicative band their farm will likely fall into.
Additional reporting by Brian McDonnell