Roughly 10 months after it was first mentioned, the Nutrient Importation Storage Scheme (NISS) has finally been launched and is now open for applications.

Part of Budget 2024, the scheme is set to increase storage on farms importing slurry from more intensive enterprises.

The scheme is viewed as a means of increasing water quality through more targeted applications of imported slurry to coincide with grass growth.

It is also being seen as a possible way to reduce the volume of farmers in derogation, or preventing stock cuts to those who were affected by the drop from 250kg N/ha to 220kg N/ha, through encouraging more export of slurry from these farms.

How to qualify

Farms importing slurry must have a whole farm stocking rate below 150kg N/ha in the year preceding application to ensure that the farm has the capacity to spread imported slurry/manure.

If operating a holding with a grassland stocking rate >130kg N/ha, farmers must have undertaken soil sampling in line with the requirements of the Nitrates Action Plan, while arable holdings availing of NISS must have undertaken soil sampling in line with the requirements of the Nitrates Action Plan.

An investment ceiling of €90,000 per holding for individuals will apply, with this increasing to a ceiling of €160,000 for registered farm partnerships.

NISS will have a dedicated ceiling solely for investment items associated with managing the importation of organic fertiliser, meaning any spend in NISS will not affect spending on the other 10 sub-schemes within TAMS.

Five-year contract

Eligible applicants must have a contract in place to import nutrients for a minimum of five years, which should declare the volume of organic fertiliser to be imported.

As part of the application process, farmers importing organic manures must fill out details of the farmer/farmers they are importing the organic manures from, including the volume of manure.

If a farmer was found to have stopped using the storage for imported nutrients within the five-year period, then recoupment of grant aid will take place.

Recoupment will be at a rate of 20% for each year that importation has not taken place.

The Department has said that applicant age will be a factor and priority will be given to younger farmers when assessing applications.

No concrete tanks

Investment items will be limited to circular slurry stores, geomembrane-lined stores and manure pits to ensure the facility will continue to be available for slurry importation as opposed to home generated slurry.

This will also rule out the possibility of mass concrete tanks being built and used for the five-year period, only to be covered over with slats and roofed for animal accommodation.

Teagasc placed a value of €6.30/m3 on cattle slurry back in January 2024, based on current fertiliser prices. If a farmer builds a 909m3 (200,000-gallon) slurry store, it will have a usable capacity of 818m3, assuming a modest 10% buffer capacity, meaning the value of the slurry in the store will be approximately €5,183.

For the below scenario, we will assume that this slurry is to be exported free of charge with all associated haulage agitation and haulage work covered by the importing farmer.

Haulage costs run at approximately €100/7,500 gallons (three loads/hour), with agitation costs are approximately €30/10,000 gallons, so to get the slurry in to the importer’s tank will cost €2,934.

To agitate and spread the slurry on their own land (which will have to be spread using LESS if coming from a derogation farm), the farmer is looking at a cost of circa €2,400, with all haulage, spreading and agitation works equating to €5,334, with the slurry valued at €5,183.

Financial sense

This is before any building costs to build the slurry store are factored in. For this to make financial sense, either the exporting farmer has to cover some of the haulage and spreading fees or the cost of artificial fertiliser has to increase to make the slurry more valuable.

The alternative is that the slurry is directly spread from the exporter’s tank on to the importers land, effectively halving handling costs, which is what most people are currently doing.