The Department of Agriculture has confirmed to the Irish Farmers Journal that nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) statements, including each holding’s cattle grassland stocking rate for the full year 2024, are not based on updated excretion rates introduced under the interim review of the Nitrates Action Programme. A spokesperson for the Department stated that the excretion rates are “based on the excretion rates that were in legal effect for 2024 as per the Nitrates Regulations (SI No. 113 of 2022, as amended)”.

This means that “in calculating compliance with a farmer’s stocking rate limit for 2024, the Department will use the 2024 excretion rates”.

The Department had initially planned to apply the amended excretion rates to the 2024 N and P statements but a delay in approving interim review changes meant these did not come in to effect until the end of February 2025.

However, the Department has outlined that it intends no farmer to be disadvantaged by the delay in introducing the revised excretion rates.

It says that in the light of this and in the interest of fairness “those farmers who fail to comply with their 2024 stocking rate limit will automatically be subject to an internal review by the Department which will also consider their compliance based on the revised excretion rates that became applicable in February of this year”.

Excretion rate changes

The excretion rate changes will be adopted for the 2025 calendar year.

These include calves less than three months of age excreting just 1kg of N in each of the first three months of life and a further 20kg over the remaining nine months. This compares to the old figure of 24kg over the first year of an animal’s life.

The revised excretion rates which are based on recent scientific work carried out by Teagasc also introduce an excretion rate of 55kg for females aged one to two years of age and 61kg for males aged one to two years of age.

This compares to 57kg for all one- to two-year-old bovines in previous excretion rates.