Designated sites 'a major worry' in NI draft ammonia strategy

Northern Irish farmers have highlighted their concerns regarding the draft ammonia strategy's proposed targeted measures on international designated sites.

A consultation on the strategy - the first of its kind for Northern Ireland - was launched last month to take action to reduce levels of the pollutant.

The local government is seeking to reduce total NI agricultural ammonia emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels.

The strategy includes a ban on spreading manure within 50m of an internationally designated site by January 2025.

It also includes a requirement for all slurry within 1km of an internationally designated site to be spread by low emission slurry spreading equipment (LESSE) by January 2025 with the potential for other enhanced measures.

Following scrutiny of the strategy by the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU), it warned that the targeted measures focused on these specific areas had the potential to "seriously hinder farming activities and impact a significant number of farmers financially".

UFU president, David Brown said: "Ammonia is typically seen as a livestock problem, but all sectors will be affected with large areas of arable land being potentially caught up in the proposed policy.

"This is something that many farmers are completely unaware of and DAERA haven’t even bothered to do any modelling on the potential costs to the farms in these areas.”

In the consultation document, DAERA state that they want to encourage ‘traditional farming practices’ in these areas.

However, the UFU said the department "failed to elaborate" on this, leaving farmers "extremely worried that their activities close to designated sites will be severely restricted".

Mr Brown said: “DAERA’s reference to ‘traditional farming practices’ is somewhat insulting to farmers and also suggests a lack of understanding about potential unintended consequences.

"Farmers simply do not have the financial means to suddenly stop managing areas of land and DAERA need to go back to the drawing board with some of these proposals."

He said the UFU was also concerned about plans to phase out splash plates on all farms: “LESSE is extremely expensive to purchase with no firm commitment to financial support being made by DAERA.

"If a contractor needs to be used as an alternative, smaller farmers tend to be put to the end of a long list, losing their flexibility to spread slurry during the most optimum conditions.

"This proposal will hit smaller farmers hard across NI and needs to be re-examined by DAERA.”

With the deadline for consultation responses on the ammonia strategy fast approaching on 3 March, the union is urging NI farmers to make their voices known.

“The majority of farmers across NI are going to be impacted by this ammonia strategy regardless of what they farm," Mr Brown said.

"The proposed measures have the potential to cause serious issues and it’s important that every farmer makes their concerns known.

"We encourage everyone to attend the DAERA meetings next week to help ensure that appropriate changes are made to this proposed ammonia strategy.

“The UFU will be finalising its response at the end of the month."