There is no excuse for lads not having their own slurry spreading gear with Tams grants available. Slurry is a valuable resource with the cost of fertiliser and should be used wisely. It is critical to any prospect of saving the derogation that the messing of getting a contractor in to spread when conditions aren't suitable must stop.
i would get out of milking cows if i had to put out my own slurry.
Ye must all have crap contractors ….I have my own 2500 gallon tank ….no t shoe or dribble bar and no way in hell I’m buying one …I spread parlour washings and add water to tanks etc with it …..contractor with t shoe spreads everything but the parlourvwashings …..super service never lets me down as long as o don’t just pick up the phone and say tanks are mixed come on soon as .no wear and tear on tractor and more free time to do other things
Have very good contractors, paid whatever way they want but there is only so much work they can get thru. Told to come whenever they can get to us. They are covering bigger areas and more jobs. Some parts of the country like down here have a higher customer base as well
Just because some of us use contractors doesn't mean we fcuk it out either, I just tell em not to come if weather doesn't suit, have heavy ground here as well it won't see slurry for the next 6 months at least hasn't got it in the last month either.
Re having the gear to do it yourself that's all specific to ones own farm and circumstances. Grant not available on LESS to dero farms either
Then why did the farm organisations beg the department for an extension.
I see some one man operations like that who do their own slurry. Its usually after the evening milking that they find the time to go at it in the spring time anyway. Working away until 10 or 11. I think life is to short for that
Judging by some of the comments on here it's no wonder the derogation is in trouble.
Is it just derogation farmers who have to use LESS from 2024?
Or are splash plates essentially being banned for everyone?
Why …..I’m in dero ….I abide by the rules ….zero interest in having big expensive tank in yard and running and racing getting loads out here and there or on Sundays /evenings ….my area has a good few contractors doing various types of work ….all slurry contracted out as is spring and silage fertiliser ……too many lads don’t value there time
For slot of farmers getting a dribble bar or trailer shoe would also require upgrading the tractor. Even with tams it's a fair expensive move.
Alot of dry ground in your area and not too many dairy farmers either I'd say
Dry ground and lots of dairy farmers
300 unplanned bales would indicate a land area of 60 acres which would indicate you were spreading too much fertilizer and of course more fertilizer had to go out if 60 acres were taken out of the rotation. After the bales were cut the slurry could have gone out then but I suppose there is an excuse for then as well.
I would not agree contractors makes much more sense from a labour and machinery point of view. During the wet weather there was plenty of contractors sitting idle......the panic stations.
Neighboring farmer has his own gear. In June when he had the silage cut he rang a contractor to give him a hand to get slurry out as he knew he could not get it done by himself.
Yes that is why the derogation was cut back. When stocked at extremely high levels it means you must be full steam ahead all the time. Any hiccup prevents certain farming actions.
Anyone above 150 kgs/ HA from now on, but it will be reduced further. I would be presuming that virtually all farmers wil have to use LESS within 5 years of not sooner.
Contracting makes much more sense. However there is many jafs that will not get the finger out. They think ever year will be perfect. Look at the amount of lads that ended up with first cut in August and hay in September.
They are just another symptom on the opposite end of the scale the
The 300 bales would have just replaced 300 bales of buffer which were eaten into by animals kept in sheds for longer. That is why the buffer is there.
Dry ground is a massive factor. Contractors under too much pressure around here between slurry dates, hedging dates, weather, dropping everything to go at tillage, can't get drivers, etc.
Was just listening to a teagasc podcast there. 1900 euro costs per cow similar to 2022. Not much space for the cows that are not pulling their weight there.
It's one of those arguments where everyone is right and everyone is wrong .there is a tendency to forget about slurry once the cattle go out and people get busy with grass and sowing and other stuff.by rights the slurry deadline should be the first of july as in slurry should go before 1 st and second cut but there d be war if you said that.on the contractor versus own gear.theres no doubt having your own gear gives great control but you still got to get it done whereas contractors will al as do almost every other job first if a weather window comes after april
A dribble bar didn't have to be that expensive. I retrofitted one to a 1650 gallon tank on small wheels. It is strange looking but keeps all slurry away from about 300ft of tanks. The cost of the dribble bar was €15k including VAT. I got €4400 back in a tams grant. That left it at €10600. A neighbour bought in halves then leaving us at €5300 each. We put it on my tank and when its beat we will buy a tank in partnership and move the dribble bar over.
I know partnership doesnt suit everyone but we are one full season in and there has been no clash yet as weare both fairly ok for storage and both on dry ground.
And if you're in derogation, youve no TAMS
Well I knew you could't get tams for slurry storage if in derogation but wasn't aware it was the same for slurry spreading gear. Just goes to show the governments position on it and they pretend it is the EU to blame. Not in dero here.
There was a window for buying dribble bar /t shoe for dero farmers tgat wanted to buy the gear ….closed now ….reasoning if your in dero you should be compliant
When the grant was there for dero farmers the splash plate was still allowed.
Sure there will be no more derogation soon so we won't have to worry about it. Bought a tank with dribble bar here through TAMS. Expensive alright and not mad about using it but definitely getting alot better use of my slurry. The young lads will drive it for me in a couple of years.
You'd want to be a master interpreter of subtle hints from the dept or have an insider to tell of future developments.
I pulled the trigger then on a dribble bar. I went both ways tank and bar in applying but it made more sense economically to buy a tank second hand and get the grant on dribble bar.
If you have the money to act straight away when they give the hints. All well and good. But people didn't expect the dept to pull the grant from derogation farmers. I see the dept as ex tillage boys and gals who want to do the dairy farmer in so I acted then straight away. 🙂And I had the money to buy at the time.
I don’t like the dribble bar and think it’s matter of time before it gets the chop …existing tank hadn’t brackets etc for t shoe .even with grant etc money was too big to change and upgrade and also most of my slurry would be spread in spring by contractor with t shoe when I wouldn’t have time to go at slurry …..held my own tank now to spread parlourvwashings and transfer that and yard washings beteween tanks
Is tams still available for those over 150kg/ha. If it's similar to what has happened to those in dero, it's going to wind up the spend quickly as it the 150 is dropping to 130 in Jan for mandatory less and 100kgN/ha in Jan 25. See the detail from the nitrates plan and the aim is by 2027 having 90% of slurry spread via less
It was very well flagged that you can't get a TAMS grant if you are non compliant with derogation in order to make you compliant. And that the splash plate was on the way out.
Matter a ###q what was flagged..
Dribble bar bad for the soil, bad for compaction, over reliance on contractors that can't deliver, like an elephant in a china shop for smaller farms, forced spreading in bad weather.
And the only gain is in ammonia emissions (at some times in the year), disguised under a nitrates objective..
Doing absolutely nothing for climate emissions..
The grant aid is there for every farmer to avail of. It's now a choice for all farmers, do you wish to have control over slurry spreading or relying on a contractor?. Soil type and storage capacity is the biggest factors to answering this. The net is tightening in on Nitrates as the means to controlling stock numbers. Having this under the control of the Dept of housing, is suiting the government at the moment. One of the biggest gains that farm orgs could do is to the agricultural nitrates under the remit of DAFM
It matters because someone said it wasn't flagged. I think it's a great job anyway. Haven't used the splash plate since I got the dribble bar. Small farms aren't wanted anymore... that's well flagged too.
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