Call for slurry spreading season to be extended after wet summer

A Donegal County Councillor is asking for the slurry spreading deadline to be extended due to the extremely wet summer weather.

Councillor Donal ‘Mandy’ Kelly has contacted the Minister for Agriculture and Donegal TD Charlie McConalogue to seek the extension.

Under current regulations, farmers are not permitted to spread slurry after October 1. Glenswilly-based Councillor Kelly has asked that the date be pushed out by a month.

“Considering the extreme weather conditions farmers have had to tackle this summer it has made it near impossible for them to get slurry out with lands being so wet and in some cases waterlogged,” Councillor Kelly said.

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“The last thing that farmers need is to be left under pressure and with no choice other than to put their slurry out on wet lands to meet the current deadline. Thus could end up leading to pollution of streams and rivers, which nobody wants to see happen.”

Councillor Kelly says he has been contacted by several concerned farmers. It is recommended that slurry should not be spread 48 hours before or after rainfall - something that has made it a testing time for farmers across Donegal.

He said: “If the current date was extended by three or four weeks, this would take a lot of pressure off farmers. Slurry has become an even more and more valuable organic fertiliser to farmers, especially since the massive hikes in the cost of chemical fertilisers.

“It is something that has become very difficult for farmers with the current weather conditions we have seen this summer, especially in Donegal, due to climate change.”

Councillor Kelly has asked that the spreading dates for 2024 be brought forward. He wants counties, including Donegal, in Zone C, where slurry cannot be spread until February 1, to be given the same start dates as those in Zone B, where spreading is allowed from January 16.