Managing rainwater on farms in Longford

Over the past 12 months, Ireland has recorded record rainfall for a number of months.
The increasing intensity of rainfall due to climate change is an additional challenge for farmers to adapt to particularly as this can occur at any time during the year.

While the impacts on productivity and day to day activity are obvious, farmers need to consider how best to manage their farms so farm infrastructure can cope with excess water and minimise the risk to water quality. This is particularly important in the farmyard and on land highly connected to the drainage network.

To help manage excess water on your farm you first need to know how it flows through your farmyard or fields.
The EPA have generated maps that show the flow pathways of water over land and these are a useful guide.

They also show where water enters the drainage network (drains, watercourses, etc.) and this is important as farmers can then locate measures to help minimise contaminant losses to water.
Establishing riparian zones and planting trees, retaining or installing wetlands, hedgerows, ponds or bunds all can help block or capture nutrient and sediment from reaching the watercourse.

The same methodology can help in the farmyard. Rain water moves across the yard and typically is channelled to a drain that takes the water away from the yard and into the drainage network. If this water flows across soiled yard areas then this water can become contaminated with nutrients, sediment and pathogens.

By spending time to assess where the water moves through the yard a farmer can then take actions to minimise the loses of contaminants.
The first thing a farmer should do is to try and reduce the volume of clean water that flows though soiled areas.

Having gutters and downpipes from shed roofs in proper working order and having the water piped directly to an outfall drain is a simple and effective method of controlling clean water. However, how many farms can say that these are in place?
Where surface water flows across the yard from clean areas, install diversions to prevent it from entering soiled areas.

This will help reduce the volume of contaminated soiled water that needs to be collected and land spread. Recent changes to the GAP regulations have increased the storage requirement for soiled water so spending time installing measures to reduce the volume generated could help reduce the capacity of storage required.

On some farms located on a slope, consideration should also be given to water that enters the yard through overland flow from fields that are sloping towards the yard.
Measures should be installed to intercept this water and divert it away from the yard.
The Agricultural Sustainability Support and Advisory Programme (ASSAP) is an advisory service available to all farmers situated in Priority Areas for Action to support with farming and water quality issues.

For further detail visit: www.teagasc.ie/assap or phone your local ASSAP Advisor Kieran in the Castlerea Office on Castlerea (Tel: 094 9620160)