The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) has launched a new nitrates calculator that HerdPlus farmers and their agricultural advisors can use to ensure they are within their organic nitrogen (N) stocking limits.
Earlier this year, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) proposed animal organic N excretion changes as outlined to the Agriculture Water Quality Working Group in December 2023, in which the ICBF has responded with the new calculator.
These proposed changes are subject to the appropriate assessment and all farmers were alerted to these intended changes earlier in the year.
The latest Teagasc research proposes the following:
- Calves aged 0-3 months – 1kg organic N excreted per animal;
- Calves 4-12 months- 20kgs organic N excreted per animal;
- Female (1-2 yr. olds)- 55kg organic N excreted per animal;
- Male (1-2 yr. olds)- 61kg organic N excreted per animal;
- Cattle 2yr + & Suckler Cows- 65kg organic N excreted per animal (no change);
- Dairy Cows – Animal excretion rate dependent on dairy cow banding & crude protein % selected and submitted to DAFM.
The above animal excretion changes are now reflected in the new ICBF Nitrates Calculator.
This calculates the organic N/dairy cow based on their latest submission of their cow’s banding on the ICBF banding screen.
ICBF Nitrates Calculator
The calculator will allow farmers to input their projected stock numbers on the farm from now until the end of the year which will enable and end-of-year organic N and phosphorus (P) total to projected for farm holdings.
This will also help project what a farmer’s overall organic N/ha may be at the end of the year.
When entering projected stock number, farmers should note the livestock ages on the calculator, particularly when stock go from one category to another.
Another useful feature of the calculator, is that it can be changed to propose future stock numbers to ensure farmers within the 170/220/250 organic N/ha limits by the end of the year.
The calculator also allows farmers to add on other types of livestock that they may have on the farm which can be factored into the overall organic N produced on the farm.
The  ‘Farm N Calculator’ function allows users to input their total land in hectares which will calculate the overall organic N/ha for your farm once the stock values have been saved and projected ahead.
The idea of the new application tool is to assist farmers and their farm advisors in meeting nitrates compliance going forward and to help with decision making on the farm.