Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has today (Wednesday, March 10) announced the launch of a new online system to record movements of organic manure between holdings.
The new system will replace the almost 16,000 paper forms submitted annually by farmers.
The department says the online system will bring a number of benefits, including simplifying the system of reporting of movements and giving farmers access to more prompt information on their compliance with the nitrates limits where they are exporting or importing manure.
The expansion of our online service is particularly welcome at this time as we are all encouraged to conduct our business online where possible in order to comply with public health measures.
Under the Nitrates Regulations, farmers are obliged to farm within the limit of 170kg of nitrogen (N) per hectare (or 250kg of N/ha for those who hold an approved derogation). One of the measures farmers can take to reduce nitrate levels is to export slurry to another holding.
Previously these movements had to be declared to the department on a paper form by December 31 annually (or October 31 for derogation holders). Submission was by e-mail or post.
“This is a new and exciting development, which will replace the thousands of paper forms submitted to the department annually while offering farmers a simple approach to maintaining their records,” the minister said.
Farmers must register to use the online system through the department’s web portal, Agfood.
The exporting farmer will log the movement on the portal and a text message will issue to the importing farmer alerting him to log on to the online system to accept the movement.
Several farmers incur penalties each year because they did not submit the ‘Record 3 Form’ by the deadline of December 31. To facilitate the transition, the department says it will accept both online declarations and paper forms until July 1, 2021, after which date use of the new online system will be mandatory.