Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has ruled out the possibility of an extension to the slurry spreading period, which is set to close on 01 October.

“Nobody should have tanks full, particularly the years that’s in it. If they do, they need to seriously examine why that happened and how they got to it because there have been opportunities for that not to be the case,” he told the Dáil.

The comments came in response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin spokesperson on agriculture, Martin Kenny, who told the Minister that many farmers still had full tanks.

“Unfortunately it is not something I intend to extend or that I’m in a position to extend for very good reason. All of our collective priority has to be in terms of improving water quality and in particular that we keep our Nitrates Derogation. That is dependent on good water quality,” Minister McConalogue explained.

“The reason for the closed period is there for good scientific reason, so that slurry is spread at a time of year that once the nutrients hits the ground the plants are growing and able to utilise them, rather than sit there, not be utilised, and wait to be potentially leached into the watercourses around.

“That’s what happens from this point of the year onwards. Last year was very different where I did give a two week extension but as you’ll remember last year’s weather was very different from what we’ve had this past six weeks. The harvest was massively different last year, lots of crops unharvested, and that tells you what it was like on grassland as well.”

The Minister said there have been adequate windows to spread slurry this year and that ground conditions have been a lot better.

“October the first is the deadline, but if you were to extend that for example to the eighth of October, you’re applying slurry with the objective of growing grass, when is that grass going to grow and be available, maybe mid or late November if grass is growing,” he continued.

“If it’s not growing the slurry will still be there in the ground waiting for weather events to bring it somewhere else. October is not the time of year to be spreading slurry - it’s spring, during the year, whenever growing conditions when plants and grass can take up the nutrients. It’s a waste to be spreading it this time of year.

“If any farmer has a particular difficulty they should contact the Department and outline their circumstances but we will certainly not be extending the deadline.”

Reporting on:independent.ie