24 April 2025

All farmers have a role to play in improving water quality

Regardless of scale, intensity or enterprise, all farmers have a role to play in bringing about an improvement in Ireland’s water quality

That’s according to Professor Pat Dillon, Director of Research at Teagasc, who detailed the Teagasc Better Farming for Water Campaign when joining a recent episode of the Signpost Series Webinar.

This campaign, Professor Dillon explained “aims to support and accelerate the adoption of actions on all farms to improve all water bodies”, all in an effort to improve the quality of Ireland’s waters, bringing it in line with the targets as set out in the Water Framework Directive.

Within this campaign, a catchment-based approach is being taken in eight ‘Catchments of Concern’ due to high nitrate concentrations. These are the Bandon, Barrow, Boyne, Blackwater, Lee, Nore, Slaney, and the Suir.

And despite some early indications on water quality improvements, as outlined in the EPA’s Early Insight Report, which showed that nitrate concentrations in 20 selected major rivers in 2024 were at the lowest point since 2016, Professor Dillon noted that practice change is required at farm level to ensure water quality improvements are realised.

This is where the ‘8 Actions for Change’ as set out in the Teagasc Better Farming for Water Campaign come into play. Centred on the areas of Nutrient Management, Farmyard Management and Land Management, these actions can be implemented on farms to lessen the risk of nutrient losses to water and will be key to helping Irish agriculture meet its water quality targets.

Broken down into three distinct focus areas – 1). Nutrient Management, 2). Farmyard Management and 3). Land Management, Professor Dillon highlighted the key areas under each farmers must prioritise.

Nutrient Management – Key Actions:

• Use AgNav platform to support reductions in farm Nitrogen balance.
• Reduce reliance on chemical nitrogen by greater use of organic manures.
• Improve soil pH to increase nitrogen use efficiency and phosphorus availability.
• Use PastureBase Ireland to increase nutrient use efficiency.

Farmyard Management: Key Actions:

• Based on current grant support and the eminent exemption from planning, livestock farmers should:
• Survey their farm in terms of current slurry storage capacity and point source pollution.
• Where required, develop a plan to upgrade their infrastructure to reduce nutrient loss while also taking cognisance of labour efficiency.

Land Management: Key Actions:

• All livestock should be prevented from accessing waterways.
• Buffer zones, riparian margins and sediment traps should be incorporated to reduce over land flow loss to waterways
• Over-winter green cover is essential in reducing nitrate leaching from tillage ground.

For further details, Professor Dillon’s full presentation delivered as part of the Signpost Series Webinar is available to re-watch below:

Find out more about the Teagasc Better Farming for Water Campaign here.

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More from Teagasc Daily: Nitrogen Balance & Nutrient Use Efficiency explained