The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has confirmed that all on-farm inspections have now resumed across the country.
Due to the challenging conditions created by the adverse weather of recent months, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue had ordered a temporary pause in all non-essential farm inspections until Monday, April 22.
The minister said he was conscious of the need to avoid any action that might affect payments to farmers.
The department has said that the following inspections, which had been paused, have now resumed:
- IDR (animal identification and registration) inspections;
- Local authority nitrates inspections;
- Pillar 2 remedial action checks;
- On the veterinary side, certain non-essential inspections (for example residue sampling, non-urgent discrepancy inspections etc.).
“With a significant improvement in the weather and conditions on farms the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine have recommenced on-farm inspections from Monday, April 22,” a DAFM spokesperson told Agriland.
Farm inspections
Farmers also had the option of deferring their Bord Bia audits in recent weeks due to the difficult weather conditions.
The recently appointed chair designate of Bord Bia, Larry Murrin, told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine that “one can only have sympathy for all primary producers”.
“A farmer can defer an audit that might be in the programme if the sheer circumstances that he is faced with on his enterprise demands that and Bord Bia will be very sympathetic to that,” he said.
The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) is yet to confirm a revised date for the start of a farm safety inspection campaign that it had planned for this month.
The campaign focused on the safe use of farm machinery during the harvesting season was rescheduled due to the impacts of the weather.
Meanwhile, Teagasc has told Agriland that almost 300 farmers contacted its local offices in relation to fodder up to last Friday (April 19).
Minister McConalogue had asked Teagasc to establish a system for coordinating advisory supports to help farmers maximise existing fodder stocks and provide a basis for those with surpluses to engage with those who are struggling.
A spokesperson for Teagasc said that of the 294 farmers who contacted their offices, 78 were seeking fodder, while 216 had stocks available.