Environmental and economic modelling of the impact of adjustments in the maximum stocking rates permitted under Ireland’s Nitrates Derogation
Teagasc was asked by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to model the environmental and economic impacts of potential changes to stocking rates under Ireland’s Nitrates Derogation. The research will inform the 2026–2029 Nitrates Action Programme and Government’s discussions with the European Commission and fellow Member States on securing an extension to Ireland’s Nitrates Derogation.
By Teagasc
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The analysis in this report relies on data from the Teagasc National Farm Survey (NFS) on Irish dairy farms only given that most farms in derogation are dairy farms. There are farms other than dairy farms that are in derogation, but the NFS does not have a representative sample of such farms and thus our analysis in this report is limited to dairy farms only. The analytical approach used involves applying potential changes in nitrates policy to this dataset. Ideally nitrates policy changes considered would be evaluated using NFS data for 2025, but such data are not yet available. In their absence NFS data for the three most recently available years (2021, 2022 and 2023) are used to account for the volatility of dairy farm incomes in Ireland in recent years.