Teagasc Signpost Programme and Lakeland Dairies Monitor farmer, Kieran McDermott writes on the actions he’s taking as part of the Farming for Water EIP to improve water quality on his farm in Co. Monaghan.
I have applied for the Farming for Water European Innovation Partnership (EIP) grant for my farm. The aim of this grant is to improve water quality in local areas and also to protect biodiversity.
This grant is available to all farmers in priority catchments across the country where water quality targets are not being met and I would be encouraging people to apply. I got in touch with my local Lakeland water quality advisor to apply. He came out to the farm, and we went through the list of measures that are available. I chose the measures that I know would suit my farm, including fencing off the water courses that are not already fenced on my farm. I will fence them 1.5m away from the water edge. I am also going to reseed some paddocks with multispecies swards. This will reduce the amount of nitrogen I have to spread in these paddocks. The inclusion of plantain and chicory will help prevent losses of nitrogen.
Under the grant, I am also going to move some of my field gaps away from nearby drains and move the gaps further up the field. This will prevent any run off from the cow traffic entering the nearby drains. I will purchase a solar fence for the out farm and fence the boundary.
A rainwater management plan for water quality
My Lakeland advisor will complete a rainwater management plan of my farmyard as part of the grant. Our farmyard is on a hill, like most farmyards in County Monaghan, so I am going to put down new concrete and drains in the yard in September, and we will plan this based on the rainwater management plan.
I want to divert all the clean rainwater to drains and not have it running into the slurry tanks on the farm. I don’t want the slurry tanks filling up with rainwater, as it leaves the farm under pressure for slurry storage for the closed period. I am going to fix the guttering and down pipes on the sheds, as some of them are in need of repair and need to be cleaned out. This is a job that is probably left to last in most farmyards.
The last measure I choose was to buy a yard scraper to clean the yard after each milking. This will stop the rainwater washing the dirt of the yard into nearby drains.
Production
Cows would be back slightly on production which would be expected near the end of July. They are producing 21.5L at 4.10 fat and 3.49 protein. This has been another month of trying to keep grass quality right and trying to keep that 1,400kgs DM cover in front of the cows at all times. I have taken the bull away from the cows and finished the 2025 breeding season. I will scan at the end of August.
The above article first appeared in the Farming Independent as part of a Signpost Programme update.