05 September 2024

Fertiliser spreading closed period approaching

The closed period for the application of chemical fertiliser, either nitrogen or phosphorous, is fast approaching.

With September 14^th being the last day for applications, if fertiliser stocks are retained on farm after the deadline comes to pass, they must be recorded on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s National Fertiliser Database as ‘closing stocks’.

Farmers must also be aware of the length of the prohibited spreading or closed period. Farms located in ‘Zone A’, which includes Carlow, Cork, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Offaly, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow, can’t apply chemical fertiliser until January 27^th. The earliest date in which farmers in ‘Zone B’, which consists of counties Clare, Galway, Kerry, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Roscommon, Sligo and Westmeath, can spread is January 30^th. In addition, farmers located in the ‘Zone C’ counties of Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim and Monaghan cannot spread chemical fertilisers containing N or P until the season opens on February 15^th, 2025.

In terms of organic manures (excluding farmyard manure), the closed period for slurry application in the autumn commences on October 1^st. Again, the details of when this closed period ends are detailed in table 1. Meanwhile, farmers must have farmyard manure applied before November 1^st, as this is when the prohibited period for farmyard manure spreading comes into force.

Table 1: Storage periods for livestock manure and prohibited periods for spreading fertilisers, organic manure and soiled water