Weather

The snow thawed this week and many places received rain and drizzle, preventing drying. There is very little rain in the forecast, but it looks like it will be cloudy.

However, you might get a day to do some spraying if needed, whether that is spraying off cover crops and cultivated stubble with glyphosate or applying herbicides to winter cereals.

Nitrates rules mean that land that was not cultivated after harvest in Leinster (excluding Longford), Cork Tipperary and Waterford cannot be sprayed or cultivated until 1 February unless it is being planted as soon as possible afterwards.

Recommended lists

The cereal recommended lists came out at the end of last week and are available on our website. It is important to look through these recommended lists and choose varieties that suit your farming system and workload.

Look for differences in ripening times and good straw strength where you have a lot of the same crop to harvest at the same time.

You should order your seed as soon as possible to secure the variety or varieties that you want to grow. The spring beans list is expected to be out this week. Some may be ordering seed at present in the hope of planting crops early.

Slurry and organic manures

Farmers in zone A can now spread slurry, farmyard manure and fertiliser. However, you should only do so if conditions are suitable. Those with agreements with livestock farmers should not allow slurry to be spread where weather conditions are not suitable, or land is too wet to inject or cultivate slurry into the soil after spreading.

It is great to work with livestock farmers to take slurry, but you have to mind your soil and get value out of the slurry.

In the first two weeks of the slurry spreading period and in the last two weeks of the spreading period, farmers need to keep wider buffers from surface waters. The buffer is 5m normally, but increases to 10m at those times of the year.

Slurry movements

From 1 January this year, farmers must report slurry movements and exports between holdings within four days of that movement occurring. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine then share this data with local authorities in the next working day of the movement being declared. This allows inspections to take place, so farmers should ensure that all is in order.

If you receive organic nutrients on your farm between 1 January and 30 June 2025, you must verify the movement on agfood.ie by 14 July 2025. If you import from 1 July to 31 December 2025 you need to verify the movement by 14 January 2026.

Payments

Continue to keep an eye on direct payments. There are still Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM) payments being issued. Farmers waiting on the SIM payment are generally farmers who applied for both the SIM and the Baling Assistance Payment. The Baling Assistance Payment is due soon. Make sure there are no outstanding issues on your application like the need for a photo.