Adhere to buffer zones when spreading slurry

With first-cut silage underway and unsuitable spreading conditions earlier in the spring, many farmers will be presented with the opportunity to spread slurry over the coming weeks. Farmers and contractors, however, need to be aware of the required buffer zones.

Catchment Coordinator for the Suir, Claire Mooney explained when joining Stuart Childs on a recent episode of the Dairy Edge podcast, a 5m minimum buffer zone is required from watercourses, drains, streams or waterbodies when spreading slurry at this time of year. Where the field slope extends >10% towards the water, this buffer increases to 10m.

“Adhere to the buffer zones, I cannot stress how much of an impact that will have,” Claire Mooney said before detailing why it is so important for water quality: “The buffer zone will act as an interception area for nutrient before it makes its way to the drain.”

Farmers may be conscious that leaving such a buffer zone will result in an unfertilised area, but along with being a regulation requiring adherence, Claire Mooney explained that the nutrients displaced from elsewhere will serve to boost grass growth.

“The 5m zone does produce grass and any nutrient that gets in will be utilised by the plant before it makes its way to the drain. If we don’t have that 5m, it has nowhere to go only make its way into the drain straight away,” she added.

With farmers in receipt of a nitrates derogation also being required to redistribute nutrients away from the milking platform, Claire Mooney recommended targeting slurry to the silage ground, allowing for the organic load on the milking platform to be lowered along with redistributing nutrients to areas where there’s the greatest need.

For full insights, listen to the full episode of the Dairy Edge podcast below:

For more tips and advice on water quality, visit the Better Farming for Water webpage here.

Also read: Key actions – protecting water quality on your farm