Macra calls on Departments to Extend Slurry Spreading Dates Immediately
02 October 2009
Macra na Feirme’s national president, Michael Gowing said it was a ridiculous situation that the best practice in grassland management as advocated by Teagasc could not be implemented because of the 15th October slurry/FYM spreading deadline as insisted by the Department of Agriculture.
Farmers aiming to maximize the utilization of grass as well as minimize the expenditure on artificial fertilizers were aiming to start closing grazing paddocks between 10th October and 20th October, depending on location. They are being advised to have 60% of the farm grazed by early November. In this scenario, the optimum period to spread slurry/FYM, depending upon ground conditions, is in the period after sufficient paddocks have been closed. Thus, ideally, slurry spreading should take place at modest levels of application throughout the period mid October to end November.
The present situation means that farmers are applying much higher levels of slurry/FYM over a shorter period of time, reducing the effectiveness as a fertilizer, increasing the risk to the environment and reducing the opportunity to maximize grazed grass.
Our state funded advisory services will support this assertion. There is every good scientific, environmental and grassland management reason to allow later spreading of slurry/FYM. Furthermore, as weather patterns are changing, we are getting wetter summers and drier winters and the grass growth is maintained into the winter months.
This year’s particularly wet summer has exaggerated the problem as opportunities for spreading were greatly reduced resulting in greater volumes remaining in storage by October.
How can we seriously have a situation where we have too different spreading dates North and South of the boarder, we need to allow farmers scope to land spread nutrients when weather permits and not be rushing out to meet calendar deadlines that do not reflect the realities of farming.
