Ireland South MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú has called on her Fianna Fáil colleague and Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue to defer the splash plate ban.
Under the Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters Regulations, from January 1 some 41,000 farmers will be required to use low emission slurry spreading equipment (LESS) when spreading slurry.
The MEP urged Minister McConalogue to “recognise the impact these new regulations will have on hill farmers in particular”.
She said that the regulations should be deferred “until we can investigate alternative ways to protect the environment when spreading slurry”.
Splash plate ban
Ní Mhurchú Moves to ban the use of the traditional splash plate slurry spreading on farms is an environmental measure that is designed to reduce emissions from agriculture.
While she said the move is “well intentioned”, the MEP said it will place “an unreasonable financial burden on smaller farmers, who will have to invest considerably in new machinery”.
Ní Mhurchú also raised the fact that the new machinery is too heavy and awkward for use on hills and this presents a clear health and safety risk for farmers who are expected to pull this equipment up and down steep hills.
This concern was recently raised by hundreds of farmers who recently attended an Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) meeting in Upperchurch, Co. Tipperary.
Around 450 farmers in the area have signed a petition calling for the ban to be deferred.
Ní Mhurchú said that farmers have raised their concerns directly with her in meetings over the past number of months.
“This is a massive issue for farmers with very hilly lands. The inability to spread the slurry on hills means that farmers may spread more on their flatter grounds leading to a greater concentration of slurry on flat grounds which presents a danger for nearby water courses,” she said.
The MEP said that other EU countries, such as Germany, are making allowances for hill farmers in the implementation of these regulations and she feels Ireland should follow suit.
Ní Mhurchú has called on officials in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) to review new technology coming to the market all the time, such as the Moscha swivel plate.
“If approved as LESS equipment, it could be a solution that would be affordable and easier for farmers to meet their environmental obligations.
“Moscha Swivel Spout Slurry Spreaders were designed by a German farmer who was seeking a better slurry-spreading technique.
“The basic idea is that the nozzle slows down the speed at which slurry leaves the tanker, thereby creating larger slurry droplets with less emissions,” she explained.