From January 1, 2025, all farms with a previous year’s grassland stocking rate of 100kg N/ha or over will be expected to use low emission slurry spreading (LESS) equipment for slurry spreading on their holdings.
Many of these farmers currently spread slurry with the use of a splash plate and will have to upgrade their slurry-spreading equipment if they wish to continue to spread slurry on their own farms.
While hiring a contractor to spread slurry is an option, some farmers prefer to spread slurry on a ‘little and often’ basis and getting a contractor in cases where low amounts are being spread may be impractical.
Farmers can avail of a 60% grant for purchasing the new equipment under the LESS Scheme which is being rolled out through the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes (TAMS) 3.
For LESS, the maximum amount of investment eligible for grant-aid under the scheme is €40,000/holding.
However, in the case of a joint application by two or more eligible partners under a registered farm partnership, the maximum eligible investment ceilings referred to above shall be increased to €60,000.
The investment ceiling under this scheme is not subject to the overall TAMS 3 investment ceiling of €90,000/holding.
Multiple applications per tranche are permissible but the minimum amount of investment which is eligible for approval under this Scheme is €2,000/application.
According to the TAMS 3 LESS Scheme terms and conditions, the following items are considered eligible investments:
(Mobile slurry tank with attachment):
- Slurry tanker;
- Shallow injection attachment with macerator;
- Retrofit trailing shoe attachment with macerator to tanker;
- Inlet chopper (new or retrofit);
- Flow meter to new or existing tanker.
Umbilical system:
- Base pump, hose reel and fittings;
- Lay flat hose and fittings;
- Trailing shoe attachment;
- Shallow injection attachment;
- Retrofit Trailing shoe attachment to existing umbilical system;
- Flow meter to new or existing umbilical system.
Hydraulic motor to substitute PTO shaft:
- Hydraulic motor to substitute PTO Shaft (permanently fixed to machine).
Last month, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue, confirmed he is amending the eligibility conditions of the LESS scheme to retrospectively allow access to all farmers who are farming at a stocking rate of less than 170kg N/ha.
This will allow all applications received from January 1, 2024 to become eligible for LESS investments.
Entry was previously capped to farms stocked at at 150kg N/Ha from January 1, 2024 and 130 kg/N/Ha from January 1, 2025, but the ministers amendment will allow more farmers access to the grant aid.
An update on the latest grant aid news for slurry storage on farms is available here.