A county councillor in Co. Mayo is calling for the deadline for slurry spreading to be extended “well into October”.
Paul Lawless, a member of Mayo County Council for Aontú, said that the agriculture sector is “working to a standstill to try and meet the current cut-off point”.
At present, slurry cannot be spread after October 1 each year.
Lawless said he is writing to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue to seek an extension “as a matter of urgency”.
According to the councillor, farmers and agricultural contractors are “in an absolute tailspin given the dreadful summer we had”.
“The fields around Co. Mayo and the west in general were sodden and only improved recently,” he said.
“I have been inundated with calls from contractors, many of whom are doing 20 hours-a-day trying to get slurry out before the deadline. They are trying to do two month’s work in two weeks,” Lawless added.
“They need to get the tanks emptied but it’s absolutely impossible for them.
“Usually, they would get slurry out in spring or summer, but this summer truly bucked that trend, with more rain than sun. In all, they have had a disastrous summer so they need urgent help,” the Mayo county councillor said.
Lawless’ call echoes that of the Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI), which, during the 2024 National Ploughing Championships last week, called for an extension of the period during which organic fertiliser can be spread.
The FCI said that the current closing date of October 1 for application of organic fertiliser is not practical after “what can be considered to have been a 15-month winter period”.
Speaking to Agriland on our official livestream of the 2024 National Ploughing Championships, FCI chief executive Michael Moroney said: “There’s a lot of pressure on contractors to get work done…We have asked the minister this week to extend the slurry spreading dates and to use the technology that is there…and there is an agreed protocol in terms of Met Éireann data, grass data.”
Based on that, Moroney said, farmers and contractors “should be able to go past October 1 for slurry spreading this year.”
The FCI is calling for slurry spreading period to be extended to October 15.