Welcoming confirmation from the Department of Agriculture, Food & Marine that all individuals who are farming up to 170kgs of N per hectare before slurry exports are now eligible for the 60% grant for the trailing shoe slurry spreader, the chairperson of ICMSA’s Farm Business Committee, Pat O’Brien, welcomed the announcement and complimented the Minister for making this change as, up to this point, farmers had understood that they would be no longer eligible above 130kgs of N in 2025.
In welcoming the decision, Mr O’Brien called on the Minister to go one “hugely positive” step further and extend eligibility for the grant to all farmers given the proven positive environmental benefits and the lack of any legislative obstacle to the extension of grant aid to derogation farmers and to all those farming over 170kgs of N per hectare.
“The ‘trailing shoe’ system of low emission slurry spreading has multiple environmental benefits, but it is an extremely expensive piece of equipment for any one individual which also requires a large tractor to operate it effectively.
“It represents a very significant investment for any farmer and realistically a grant towards its purchase is absolutely necessary and completely justified on the basis of delivering a public good – as well as for the farmers,” said Mr O’Brien.
The ICMSA Farm Business chairperson said his association had always opposed the exclusion of farmers from the grant aid based on their stocking rate and many farmers have either lost out on the grant or have been unable to consider investing in the equipment up to now.
He said that the Minister’s decision will now mean that farmers up to 170kgs of N can now consider the investment but those over 170kgs are still excluded and ICMSA was urging the Minister to make the grant available to all farmers irrespective of stocking rate and so assist all those farmers wishing to further improve their environmental footprint.
