On the River Barrow, 85 per cent of the nitrogen found in its waters can be traced back to farming, says EPA programme manager Mary Gurrie. Photograph: Alan BetsonDairy farmer PJ O’Keeffe ruffled feathers in 2018 when he took AIB publicly to task at a gathering in Kilkenny attended by more than 100 farmers, industry representatives and bankers over the bank’s claims that it was supporting young farmers.
In all, 7,000 dairy farmers today enjoy a European Commission-approved derogation that allows them to use up to 250kg of livestock manure nitrogen per hectare – numbers that lay at the heart of the huge expansion in the State’s dairy herd numbers over the last seven years. Now, however, dairy farmers are facing pressure to change because the meeting of production targets has also created a national water quality crisis which jeopardises the entire future of the industry.
A sense of antipathy towards An Taisce is shared by many in farming communities. It has also sparked political debate in a Coalition Government where Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil need to maintain support in rural areas antagonistic towards the Green Party. Fertiliser use on every farm must be better tracked, she says, adding that this would link individual farmers to pollution outbreaks. But agriculture has steadfastly refused to share the data with the EPA, or any other bodies.
Measures are in place to stop farmers spreading slurry and fertiliser during the winter months, when heavy rains can wash nutrients quickly into water courses, but this has not stopped the rise in discharges. Stricter rules are in the pipeline, but they frighten farmers who fear for their livelihoods.
Teagasc and others in the industry are now trying to claw back the situation. The research body’s Agricultural Sustainability Support and Advisory Programme is offering a confidential service to advise farmers regarding water problems. Stricter rules about stocking rates and fertiliser spreading are being implemented.
Critics, however, believe efforts to improve water quality have stagnated. In April, during an Oireachtas hearing on the Draft River Basin Management Plan, Dr Elaine McGoff of An Taisce was scathing. Since he was a small boy, Whelan has been fascinated by rivers and streams and he has lived through major arterial drainage work on agricultural land around the Blackwater, which completely upended wetlands and fishing courses. However, he believes that farmers must be encouraged to become supporters of the battle to improve water quality, rather than always being the ones who believe every environmental action threatens them.
Efforts since by local authorities have helped, and such local approaches are championed by the programme co-ordinator at the Maigue Rivers Trust in Limerick, Liz Nugent. As a farmer’s daughter, she is well aware of the confusion many farmers now feel.
SavetheBoyne Not just dairy
fix it, its an important industry, put in place compensatory controls
And our friends in sinnfeinireland are yet to come to a view on the issue!