THE decision last week by Agriculture Minister, Charlie McConalogue, to extend the spreading deadline under the National Liming Programme to October 31, 2024, has been welcomed by farming representatives.

With land slow to dry up in late spring following the heavy rains of the previous seven to eight months, a lot of farmers couldn’t put out lime that had been pre-paid for and approved in the liming scheme.

Initially the deadline for spreading lime in the scheme was October 31, 2023, which was subsequently extended to the end of March, 2024, and then to June 28 next. The October 31 deadline for later this year will be the final one, according to the Minister for Agriculture.

Minister McConalogue said that while he had hoped the previous deadline extension would have allowed ground conditions to improve sufficiently for the spreading of lime, this hadn’t been the case in some parts of the country.

“Information from quarries estimates that a little over 30% of pre-paid lime has been spread to date, with this figure being lower in certain parts of the country. With the previous deadline fast approaching, I am extending the spreading date until the end of October to give all farmers the opportunity to apply lime as per the conditions of the scheme,” said the Minister.

Pictured: Galway IFA Chair, Stephen Canavan