FARMERS HAVE been given an extension to the time in which they are allowed to spread slurry because of the poor weather conditions of recent months.
Wednesday was to have been the last day farmers could legally spread slurry on their fields, but Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith said at the Beef Expo in Kilkenny that they could continue to spread manure until the end of this month.
He said he had consulted Minister for the Environment John Gormley, who had agreed to the extension of the time to spread slurry because of the rainfall levels of recent months and the inability of farmers to meet the October 15th deadline stipulated in the nitrates directive.
The extension of time, he said, was to alleviate the hardship some farmers had experienced because of the poor weather, but he stressed that it was an extension of time only and farmers would have to stick by the regulations which forbade spreading slurry on waterlogged land or in wet conditions or if rain was forecast.
The ban would have meant that farmers would have to store the material in tanks on their farms until they were allowed to spread it and, because of rainfall, many slurry tanks are already full running into the closed season.
The two-week time extension was criticised by the Irish Farmers Association president Pádraig Walshe as "totally inadequate" and said farmers should be allowed to spread slurry until the end of the year.
He said the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland had given farmers there this concession and he could not see why it could not be applied here as well.
Mr Smith, who officially opened the Beef Expo at Kilkenny mart yesterday, said he would also be seeking brucellosis-free status for the Irish cattle herd because there had not been a case in the State since April 2006.
"We have gone from a position where we had more than 1,000 outbreaks a year to no cases, and I am seeking permission from Brussels for this status to be given to us early in the new year."
The Beef Expo attracted thousands of farmers and their families to see Ireland's top beef breeding animals.
In all, there were 613 animals shown from 13 breeds at the newly opened mart at Cillin Hill by 272 exhibitors.
The Irish beef industry is worth in excess of €2 billion annually and employs 5,000 in processing and a living to 80,000 livestock farmers, making Ireland the fourth-largest beef exporter in the world.