The 1 October slurry spreading deadline is a “backstop” date and is not optimum for spreading slurry, a Department of Agriculture official has said.

Speaking at the Irish Farmers Journal’s Tillage Day on Thursday, Barry O’Reilly said that the dates are there for a reason.

“There is pressure on the wider sector to do more in terms of environmental sustainability. When you look at calendar dates, a lot have to do with nitrates regulations, such as slurry spreading.

“We need to make improvements on water quality. The dates are there for a reason, they’re there to protect water quality,” he said.

O’Reilly said that 1 October is not the “optimum date” for spreading and that it “doesn’t mean that every farmer should be out” the day before.

After that date, farmers shouldn’t be spreading organic nutrients on crops as there’s no requirement for them, he said.

Pressure

George Blackburn, a tillage farmer, agronomist and Cooney Furlong representative, said that the current system of calendar farming is putting contractors “under massive pressure”.

“The same fellas that sow the corn are the same fellas spreading the slurry. The man power isn’t there,” he said.

He said the dates are a big bug bear of his.

“Farming by dates does not work, but we’re tied into this system now. A lot of the legislation that comes out, a lot is implemented on how easy it is to police rather than its environmental [reach],” he said.