The Irish Farmers' Association plans to boycott next Thursday's Teagasc National Tillage Conference in Carlow because of a row over the nitrates directive plan for Ireland.
Farmers strongly disagree with advice given by Teagasc, the Irish agriculture and food development authority, to the Departments of the Environment and Agriculture in the run-up to the imposition of new EU rules on the amount of fertilizers farmers may use on their land.
The directive, which came into force at the beginning of the year, also specifies slurry storage periods and restricts the times of year at which slurry can be spread on land.
All the farm organisations claim that many intensive farmers, and especially pig and poultry farmers, cannot operate within the new limits of 170kg of organic nitrogen per hectare.
Last week at its national executive meeting, the IFA recommended that members withdraw support from Teagasc, including financial support, because of Teagasc's handling of the nitrates programme. Farmers are particularly angry about the use of Teagasc fertilizer data to establish maximum legal limits.
The new IFA president, Pádraig Walshe, called on Teagasc to withdraw what he termed "this flawed and inadequate data immediately", saying its implementation could lead to livestock farmers ploughing up their lands.
The boycott will be a test of loyalty for IFA members, as the conference is one of the most important events in the year for hundreds of farmers who come to avail of Teagasc advice there. It will be a major test for Mr Walshe should farmers ignore the boycott.
The move has serious implications for the operations of Teagasc, which has been using working farms operated by model farmers as a platform for the dissemination of advice on the wide range of areas covered by the service. Should these farmers withdraw their facilities to Teagasc, it would severely impede the work it was set up to perform.
In a letter to his staff on January 19th, which has been seen by The Irish Times, Teagasc director Jim Flanagan explained and defended the role of his organisation in the run-up to the imposition of the directive.
He said that in a letter on December 1st from Dr Séamus Crosse, Teagasc's specialist heading the project, both Government departments were told of Teagasc's concerns that advice on fertilizer use was "now being transported into legal maxima" and these would not accommodate the variations in all biological and ecological systems.
It was preferable, the letter said, for the proposed levels to be used as reference levels rather than legal limits.
"He indicated that these issues needed further consideration and that the Dutch system should be considered. In a subsequent letter he accepted that the Dutch had set maximum values for nutrient use. The Teagasc position still stands," said Dr Flanagan's circular.