Following the announcement in March 2022 of the Soil Nutrient Health Scheme (SNHS) by the Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) has been preparing for its phased roll-out.
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May 17, 2021, 6:20 am
As silage season approaches, now is the time to consider the environmental risk of silage effluent, to avoid a pollution incident which could cause serious harm to waterways.
Heather Gregg, an agri-environment adviser with the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), said: “Silage effluent is probably one of the biggest risk factors during silage season, as its potency as a pollutant can have serious damaging effects if it reaches a waterway.
“As a result, its management is critical through the silage making, ensiling and storage process.
”The severity of silage effluent can be highlighted through explaining the biological oxygen demand (BOD) of a number of substances.
SHARING OPTIONS:
For farmers that are operating close to the 170kg/ha limit, an option is to export organic manure off farm.
The total number of farmers in NI who plan to operate under a nitrates derogation during 2021 is almost unchanged from last year.
DAERA received 433 derogation applications before the 31 March 2021 deadline, which compares to the 432 farmers that applied for the 2020 calendar year.
However, the total remains lower than other years as 472 applied in 2019 and 480 applications were received back in 2018.
A derogation allows the nitrogen loading limit from organic manure on highly stocked farms to increase from 170kg/ha to 250kg/ha.