REPS farmers unable to spread slurry on their land due to the recent poor weather conditions have been buoyed by a six-week extension of the REPS slurry-spreading period.The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food this week announced the temporary measure to assist REPS farmers. According to Tony Killeen T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: “The measure applies to farmers in REPS 3 who are required to have spread all the slurry produced during the winter housing period by 31 August”. The Clare T.D. said: “The atrocious weather conditions of the past two months have made it extremely difficult for some local REPS farmers to get their slurry spread by the end of this month”.
He continued: “The Nitrates Regulations would rule out spreading in many areas at the moment. I am delighted, therefore, that Minister Smith has agreed to extend the deadline to 15 October, which is the deadline in the Nitrates Regulations themselves and also applies to farmers in REPS 4”.
