The Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters Regulations 2022 (S.I. 113 of 2022 as amended), known as the ‘GAP Regulations’, gives legal effect in Ireland to the Nitrates Directive and to our Nitrates Action Programme.
The GAP Regulations provide a set of measures to ensure the protection of waters, including drinking water sources, against pollution caused by nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural sources. The set of measures also provide some safeguards against possible harmful impacts to water quality arising from agricultural activity, including the “storage of silage bales”.
As the main silage-making season begins, the DAFM is reminding all farmers that from this year, silage bales, including high dry matter silage or haylage, can only be stored a maximum of two bales high, in the absence of adequate facilities for the collection and storage of any effluent that may arise. Silage bales must also continue to be stored at least 20m from surface water or a drinking water abstraction point, as required under the previous GAP Regulations. These requirements also apply to the storage of haylage. Farmers with low dry matter silage bales should consider whether it is appropriate to stack their bales up to two high in the absence of appropriate effluent collection facilities.