An expert in land management has urged farmers with high nature value land to effectively ignore the recommendations made in soil nutrient health scheme (SNHS) reports.

Thousands of farmers in zones one and two of the SNHS have received these reports, which set out the nutrient status of individual fields and actions that should be taken to correct low pH status or critical nutrients such as phosphorus (P) and potassium (K).

However, according to Dr Peter McEvoy, an ecologist with Ulster Wildlife, applying lime and other nutrients to low-input species rich grassland will negatively impact these important habitats.

“The land that has been extensively managed for hundreds of years – it will be lost in a season.

“You might get it back over 20 to 30 years, but you have damaged that habitat straightaway,” McEvoy told the Irish Farmers Journal.

Where the habitat is damaged, there is the potential it becomes ineligible for future agri-environment schemes, so there is also an economic argument to consider, added McEvoy.

Action

For fields that are low in pH or P and K, a traffic light system is used in the SNHS reports to highlight where action is required.

“My fear is that farmers get a letter from the Department with a big red box that says ‘recommended to add lime’, so they think they better do that. They have never had a driver to do it before,” said McEvoy.

Fail-safe

He maintained that environmental groups raised concerns with DAERA at the start of the scheme and had been given assurances that a number of “fail-safes” would be included.

For example, the traffic light system is not used for land designated as an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI), while there is the option when registering fields to choose a crop code of “extensive grazing/zero nutrients”.

However, with only 9% of land in NI designated as an ASSI, it means a significant amount of semi-natural grass and peatland is still receiving recommendations to correct pH and nutrient status.

On the issue of crop codes, McEvoy described the long list of codes as “bewildering”, with most farmers (or their agents) opting to use the code “grazing” at the time of application.

“The SNHS is a good scheme and it will deliver well on the right land, but it has classic unintended consequences.

“It was never designed for this sort of land. It probably should never have been sampled at all,” said McEvoy.