Farmers bristle over lower nitrates derogation rate as EU rules aim to safeguard water quality

“Crippling” is how young dairy farmer Seán Kelly described confirmation that the nitrates derogation rate will drop next year.

He farms 120 cows on the outskirts of Nenagh, Co Tipperary, with his parents and will have to cull or sell at least 12 cows once the rate drops from 250kg of organic nitrogen to 220kg of organic nitrogen per hectare from the start of next year.

“There’s my mother, my father and myself all drawing wages from the farm,” Mr Kelly told The Irish Times.

“We are looking at a loss of €17,000 from the farm income because we will have to cut back by 12 cows. It’s sickening – there are three of us running a family farm but these are the rules that the Government has brought in.”

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There has been widespread farmer outrage since Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue confirmed that the European Commission was insisting on a lower organic nitrogen rate.

Ireland is one of just three member states to hold a nitrates derogation which allows farmers to stock cows at a higher rate. Some 6,000 farmers in Ireland have a nitrates derogation, the vast majority of which are dairy farmers. There are just 17,500 dairy farmers in the country and almost a third are potentially affected by any rule changes to the derogation.

So what will the change mean?

Put simply, if a farmer has 50 hectares of land and does not have a derogation they can keep 92 dairy cows that produce an average amount of milk. In comparison, if that farmer had a nitrates derogation, under current rules, they could keep 135 cows.

What is ‘banding’?

When the rules change on January 1st next year, that farmer with a derogation will only be able to keep 120 dairy cows.

The issue is further complicated by the introduction of a term called “banding”, where dairy cows are put into three different band categories based on how much milk they produce. Farmers with high-yielding cows face more severe cuts to their herd size.

Water quality issues relating to agriculture are key to the drop in derogation rates. The Environmental Protection Agency released a map earlier in June outlining rivers and lakes that have ongoing nitrogen pollution which they link, in a large part, to manure from farms.

The options for dairy farmers who are affected are limited, with just four months until the new rules are introduced. If they do not want to reduce cow numbers, they will have to look to buy or rent additional land. However, this has a wider impact on the farm community where dairy farming is still the most profitable sector and can usually outbid tillage, beef and sheep farmers for land.

For farmer Seán Kelly, renting land is not an option due to what he calls, “extortionate” rates around Nenagh. His only option will be the same as many other dairy farmers who are facing a severe hit to their incomes and a cull in cow numbers.