Slurry opening date

kevinm177

As usual some confusion over the opening date for Zone A. Some media outlets saying you can spread on the 12th. Others say 13th. Same craic every year,
What are people planning??

Nekarsulm

This is the official dates, but I suppose I'll have to jig out a few more loads in a discreet manner first....

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/slurry-spreading-season-commence-soon/

kevinm177

Nekarsulm wrote: »

This is the official dates, but I suppose I'll have to jig out a few more loads in a discreet manner first....

http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/slurry-spreading-season-commence-soon/

Ya but there lies the confusion.
Is the spreading dates 12jan-15 oct
Or is the closed date 15 oct to 12 Jan.
The difference is only a day but there is a difference..

Nekarsulm

The dates shown are the "Prohibited" dates, so I take it that for Zone C, spreading on any date between (and including) 15nt October to Jan 31st.
So opening day is 1st Feb.

my3cents

That would explain the two tractors and tankers spreading slurry I saw in a field today and all the slurry that was spread near here just before Christmas

Really whats the point of these rules, farmers don't seem to take any notice of them?

Nekarsulm

my3cents wrote: »

That would explain the two tractors and tankers spreading slurry I saw in a field today and all the slurry that was spread near here just before Christmas

Really whats the point of these rules, farmers don't seem to take any notice of them?

You have to balance the needs of animal husbandry against the chance of getting fined.
Do you leave cattle up to their ankles in slurry for ten days, or get a few load out to relieve the situation?
Ultimately, the weather decides whether you can empty tanks or not.
There was tanks of slurry spread around here (perfectly legally) on the closing weekend, and it would have been as handy to pump directly into the Erne or the Shannon, cause that's where they ended up.

kevinm177

my3cents wrote: »

That would explain the two tractors and tankers spreading slurry I saw in a field today and all the slurry that was spread near here just before Christmas

Really whats the point of these rules, farmers don't seem to take any notice of them?

I couldn't agree you more, prob the most rediculous rule put on farmers in the last 15 years. If we could more support from forward thinking non farmers like yourself we would be sorted!!!

alps

Nekarsulm wrote: »

You have to balance the needs of animal husbandry against the chance of getting fined.
Do you leave cattle up to their ankles in slurry for ten days, or get a few load out to relieve the situation?
Ultimately, the weather decides whether you can empty tanks or not.
There was tanks of slurry spread around here (perfectly legally) on the closing weekend, and it would have been as handy to pump directly into the Erne or the Shannon, cause that's where they ended up.

It is completely illegal to spread slurry on saturated ground, or when there are conditions that could lead to runoff...

The closed period is based on a period of the year when the plants capacity for uptake of nutrients is highly unlikely to be able to exceed an application of nutrients...

The closed period is what we have matched our slurry holding capacity to, but it doesn't take a genius to know, after nearly 10 years of this regulation, that the functional capacity for many farms is multiples of this regulated capacity....

Who2

The problem was this year was a disaster with cattle going in early, not getting the opportunity to empty the last in the tanks in the back end and with the amount of ray and lads redirecting yard water into slats all had the combined effect of filling tanks early. I'm running too tight here and I will have to go early with loads from all of the tanks but I'll do my best to spread the couple of loads onto dry banks away from water courses.