Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae is calling on Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue to extend the slurry spreading deadline by a fortnight.
The TD said the minister can use the powers available to him under the Good Agricultural Practice for the Protection of Waters Regulations 2022 to allow an extension of the deadline from October 1, 2023 to October 15, 2023.
“It is important that the minister allows for an extension of the period for slurry using Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) systems.
“This will allow for farmers to complete crop harvests, grass, maize and cereals in all parts of Ireland,” Healy-Rae said.
The TD added that it was “crucial” that Minister McConalogue makes this decision “as a matter of urgency” so farmers can plan grass harvesting and slurry spreading “in a structured way”.
Deputy Healy-Rae has also warned that “if no action on the matter takes place, then an even more serious slurry management problem during the winter months of 2023/2024 where slurry storage capacity on many farmers will be totally inadequate will occur”.
Deadline
The Kerry TD said that he was supporting a request made last week by the Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI) to extend the slurry spreading deadline, due to ongoing difficult harvesting conditions.
The FCI said that an extension would cater for excess slurry production due to livestock being housed earlier than usual, or slurry which has been held back for later application, due to wet weather conditions.
In two letters, one sent to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue, and one sent to Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien, the FCI called for a “national contingency plan” to be put in place that would allow slurry spreading past the current cut-off point of October 1.
The FCI said that any slurry spreading taking place during an extension to the open period would be done though low-emission slurry spreading (LESS) equipment.