Two-thirds of dairy farmers need extra slurry storage

In a poll of 394 dairy farmers over three days at the Moorepark open day in mid-September, 80% of farmers questioned said that they have enough slurry storage and do not need to spread slurry over the closed period.

Of those who said they do not have enough storage, 73% said they were short less than 20% of slurry storage capacity.

These figures are much less than the 40% of dairy farmers who, according to the Department of Agriculture, have insufficient slurry storage.

However, based on their understanding of the new measures contained within the review of the nitrates action programme, 66% of dairy farmers said they will need to build additional storage to comply with the proposed measures.

Soiled water storage appears to be the main issue, with 44% saying they will need extra storage for soiled water and 38% saying they will need extra storage for both soiled water and slurry.

Two-thirds of farmers said that based on their understanding of the new nitrates proposals, they will have to reduce their chemical nitrogen usage.

When asked about the percentage of good clover in their swards – that is more than 20% of clover in the sward on average over the year – just 5% of those asked said more than 50% of their milking platform had good clover.

Some 80% of dairy farmers have 30% or less of their milking platform with clover contents capable of replacing chemical nitrogen.

The subject of multispecies swards divided opinion, with 49% saying they would consider sowing multispecies next year, while a slim majority – 51% – said they would not consider sowing multispecies next year.

Farmer opinion on the performance of the Government in relation to agriculture was also gauged, with 51% saying they are not satisfied with the Government’s performance, 31% undecided and 18% satisfied.

Farmers were asked for their opinion on Government performance in the runup to the deadline for public consultation on the nitrates action programme. It will be interesting to see if farmer sentiment towards the Government changes after the publication of the contentious climate change budgets due in the next few months.

In relation to the new CAP proposals, 52% of dairy farmers feel the new CAP will be bad for their farm business, with 30% saying they didn’t know and 17% saying they felt the new CAP will be good for their farm business. This suggests that the commonly held belief that the majority of dairy farmers will benefit from convergence is not necessarily the case.

On the subject of expansion, 55% of farmers asked said they intend to increase cow numbers over the next five years, with 45% of farmers saying they have no intention of increasing cow numbers.

Of those who plan to expand, 41% intend to increase by between 10% and 20%. In total, 77% of those who intend to expand wish to increase cow numbers by between 0% and 30%.

Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed were Glanbia Ireland suppliers and of those, 56% applied to the reserve pool for additional peak milk volumes. When asked were they satisfied with volumes of milk they were allocated, 51% said they were, while 49% remain dissatisfied with their allocated volumes.