Last week the Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith decided to extend the last date for slurry spreading to the end of this month, "but the date extension is totally inadequate."
That’s the view of Padraig Walshe, the president of the IFA, who also said that "due to the dreadful weather conditions over the past summer and autumn, farmers have no choice but to spread slurry when ground conditions permit, for the remainder of the current year."
However, he did insist that farmers should avoid spreading slurry during or following very heavy rainfall, but with many tanks full to capacity at the present time, the Minister for Agriculture has no other option but to grant the time extension until the end of the year."
Once again Mr Walshe pointed out that in the six county part of Ireland, the Department of the Environment has permitted farmers to spread slurry "for the remainder of the year because of the carryover from the exceptionally wet autumn.
“In my opinion, it should not be a big problem for Minister Smith to give farmers the same opportunity to spread slurry as our neighbours up the road. He has just got to realise that we have just gone through what was the worst summer and autumn in living memory, and in these extreme circumstances, real changes to the slurry spreading dates will have to be made."
