Farmers set for major protest in Bandon
Farmers will hold a rally in Bandon this evening to voice their support for maintaining the current level of the nitrates derogation.
The rally, which has been organised by the Cork Central branch of the Irish Farmers’ Association will meet at 7.30pm at Riverview Shopping Centre, with tractors assembling at Bandon Co-Op.
The rally will conclude in the mart in Bandon and all farmers, farm organisations, processors and suppliers are invited to attend.
Derogation farming allows farmers to farm more intensively, however they have to take on additional conditions to protect the environment.
As part of the conditions set by the European Commission, a water quality review was required this year. The recently published report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found no significant improvement in the water quality of rivers and lakes.
This lack of improvement is mainly attributed to the excessive presence of nitrogen, primarily stemming from fertilisers and manures, much of which is originating from agricultural runoff and wastewater discharges.
The outcome is that the likelihood of a reduced stocking rate under the nitrates derogation is increasing, which is a cause of major concern for farmers.
Conor O’Leary the chair of Cork Central’s Irish Farmers Association spoke to the Cork Independent about the rally and the concerns of derogation farmers.
“There is so many farmers that would be affected by this. We have done everything that’s been asked of us for 15 years and what we are saying that there is better measures that can be undertaken.”
While he acknowledges that the water quality needs to be better, he believes progress is being made, and derogration farmers are instrumental in this. “Cork at the moment has the best quality rivers in Ireland and the water quality is improving,” he said.
“Down in the Timoleague catchment area, Teagasc are monitoring a river and the quality of the water in it every ten minutes, and it has improved hugely. In that area it’s 96% derogation farmers and there’s really good buy in from all the farmers to do things properly.
“We are confident that derogation farmers, because they are inspected so frequently, are not the problem, it lies elsewhere,” he added.
The reduction in the current nitrates derogation limit from 250kg of organic nitrogen per hectare down to 220kgN/ha will have a very real economic impact on farmers explained Conor.
“For a typical farmer it would mean approximately a little more than 10% reduction in cow numbers. That last percentage of cows is where we make our income. Costs probably run at 70% of income and you make a profit on 30%, but the last 10% of cows, the profit might be 100%,” he said.
“We may have to reduce cow numbers but the fixed costs will remain. It’s the first move by the European Commission that will affect the income of the farmers. We are concerned about that and farmers are worried," he said.
"The gain of going from 250kg to 220kg is far outweighed by the economic hit. We feel what really may be at play after here is that they are going after cow reduction for climate reasons and not for water quality reasons,” he added.