Farmers still don’t know for sure what their nitrogen (N) fertiliser allowance will be in 2025. In a repeat of what happened last season, advisors and farmers are planning on the assumption that the maximum application rates will be reduced by 5%. However, in mid-July, towards the end of the 2024 spreading season, the Department rowed back on this and said that maximum fertiliser N rates will be unchanged for 2024. At that time the Minister said that any proposed changes to fertiliser N rates will not be applied before 2025. Now, Teagasc and private advisors are drafting up nutrient management plans and are incorporating a 5% cut on the upper limits for the 2025 season.
Farmers still don’t know for sure what their nitrogen (N) fertiliser allowance will be in 2025. In a repeat of what happened last season, advisors and farmers are planning on the assumption that the maximum application rates will be reduced by 5%. However, in mid-July, towards the end of the 2024 spreading season, the Department rowed back on this and said that maximum fertiliser N rates will be unchanged for 2024.
At that time the Minister said that any proposed changes to fertiliser N rates will not be applied before 2025. Now, Teagasc and private advisors are drafting up nutrient management plans and are incorporating a 5% cut on the upper limits for the 2025 season.
Similarly, there is still no clarity on final stocking rate numbers for 2024 for farmers that utilised the option to use low crude protein concentrates for dairy cows and who had young stock on hand. Readers will be familiar with the Department plan to reduce N excretion rates for calves and youngstock.
However, these proposals were never actually written into law. When asked about this, the Department of Agriculture wrote to the Irish Farmers Journal at the end of 2024 to say;
“The Department wrote to farmers earlier this year advising of new excretion rates for a specific cohort of animals including young calves and for those managing protein levels in concentrate feed for dairy cows. These provisions will be applied if favourable to the farmer in respect of 2024 when establishing compliance with the Good Agriculture Practice for the Protection of Waters Regulations (commonly called the Nitrates Regulations).”
My understanding is that the changes require an update to the statutory instrument enforcing the nitrates regulations and this was supposed to be implemented and signed by Minister Darragh O’Brien in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage before the end of 2024, but wasn’t.
The new Minister in that department is James Browne and it is likely that the fertiliser rules and the excretion rate rules will be changed at the one time, but uncertainty remains as to when?.
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