Farm scale buffer zones such as those funded by the Waters EIP and ASSAP offer a great way to improve water quality, reduce flooding and drought conditions in the wider catchment and introduce habitat on your farm. Similarly, habitat enhancement measures often offer similar benefits for water and hydrodynamics even though the focus is more overtly on supporting wildlife. While FH Wetland Systems can advise on both of these, there is a whole suite of things that can be done on your farm to improve water quality that are worthy of further research. Online resources can help to provide guidance, as can farming groups such as BASE and Talamh Beo.
Following are some of the measures and options that can be applied to farms and farming for improvement of water quality, hydrodynamic repair and wildlife benefit:
Integrated Constructed Wetlands – ICWs
Integrated constructed wetlands are used for filtration of parlour washings and soiled yard run-off instead of having to store these for land spreading. The design sizing is 200% of the total yard area, including roof surfaces. They are typically clay lined so are suitable for sites with heavier soils rather than free draining farms. Good guidance is available from the Department of Agriculture on these systems. Planning permission and a discharge licence are both required.
Willow filters
In Denmark, willow filters are sometimes used for uptake of yard run-off and parlour washings. This has not yet been adequately trialled in Ireland, but there is great potential in combining the high nutrient concentrations in yard run-off and the high nutrient requirements for willow growth; particularly if the willows can be used as a biomass crop. Indeed, there is great potential for recirculating sewage nutrients as well as farm run-off nutrients back to extensive willow crops. What would be helpful is a dedicated “water quality payment” to help support the use of willows as a biomass crop in areas where nutrient uptake is needed, wither that be sewage or farm sourced nutrients.
Farm scale composting
While slurry spreading returns nutrients to the land, they are water soluble and liable to being lost from your crops and showing up as water pollution. Farm scale composting is a way to return nutrients in a much more stable form. This not only returns the nutrients, but builds soil carbon and improves the biodiversity within the soil itself, enhancing the community of life within the soil which then produces better crops. Compost also has a healthy humic structure which both holds soil moisture and improves drainage – both important attributes in our changing climate. One way to speed to the adoption of farm scale composting is to fund the infrastructure needed, so that turning and spreading become affordable mechanised processes for farmers.
Building soil carbon
In addition to farm scale composting, regenerative agriculture techniques can help to build topsoil and soil carbon. Such methods include examples such as holistic planned grazing, key-line ploughing, agroforestry, silvopasture and other methods. Even familiar measures such as crop rotation, multi-species sward, permanent pasture and farm diversification can all help with building soil carbon. These can all have multiple benefits for water retention, drought resilience, flood control, crop and livestock health, carbon sequestration, climate resilience, biodiversity and cost savings. Increasingly, carbon credit payments will help to fund transitions into carbon farming techniques, and in the meantime there are direct benefits for your soil and wider river catchment.
Soil amendments
There is an increasing range of biological additives that can be incorporated into the soil to improve soil biology, aid soil carbon building, and improve crop growth and livestock health. Examples include EM (effective microorganisms), mycorrhizal fungi, KNF (Korean Natural Farming) or more commonly just Natural Farming and other similar methods and products. Some Irish farmers are reporting great successes by using natural farming methods and watching their soils improve as the fungal/bacterial ratios in the soils shift towards the fungal end of the spectrum and plant roots partner with the extensive mycorrhizal network to gather moisture and nutrients while also aiding soil drainage.
Farm scale permaculture
Permaculture is a design approach which aims to meet human needs without impacting negatively on the environment. Straightforward as this sounds, many of our technologies have side effects which are hugely detrimental to he natural world – on which we all depend for life. For a deeper dive into farming in a way that benefits the environment, take a look at the many resources on farm scale permaculture online. This link provides an initial overview of one writer on Irish farm scale permaculture.
Note that while FH Wetland Systems offers design and consultancy for buffer zone measures and habitat enhancement, the other elements listed above are beyond our remit. We can direct you to practitioners if interested, or search online for an increasing number of Irish examples for many or all of the above.
