Enter the average number of each type on the farm over the year.
100 kg N per head / year
kg N/yr
10,000
2. Your farm
Standard contents: cattle slurry 2.6 kg N/m³, pig slurry 3.6 kg N/m³. Use your export records or analysis where you have them.
Result
Produced by livestock
10,000
kg N / year
Net after imports / exports
10,000
kg N / year
Loading
—
kg N / ha / year
Area needed
58.8
hectares
Enter your livestock and agricultural area to see your loading.
A guide based on the standard figures — not a substitute for your nutrient management plan. DAERA has consulted on a new Nutrients Action Programme for 2027–2030 that would change the dairy cow and poultry figures; this tool will be updated if the new regulations are made.
How the nitrogen loading limit works
Every farm in Northern Ireland, and every holding inside a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone in England, must keep the nitrogen in livestock manure applied to the land to no more than 170 kg N per hectare per year, averaged over the farm. That includes manure deposited by grazing animals as well as slurry and manure you spread.
The calculation is simple: average stock numbers × the standard nitrogen figure for each type, plus any manure brought in, minus any exported, divided by the farm’s agricultural area. This calculator uses the official standard figures for Northern Ireland from the Nutrient Action Programme Regulations (NI) 2019.
Over the limit? Your options
Export slurry or manure under a recorded agreement, for example to tillage farms or an AD plant.
Take on more land — rented or conacre ground counts if it is available for manure.
Apply for a grassland derogation if you qualify, and meet its conditions.
Adjust stocking rates or the mix of stock across the year.
Our guide to nutrient management plans explains how the loading figure fits into the rest of your farm’s nutrient planning, our guide to the 170 kg N/ha limit walks through a full worked example and the derogation, and the slurry storage calculator checks whether your stores can hold what the same stock produce over the winter.
Frequently asked questions
What counts towards the 170 kg N/ha limit?
Total nitrogen in livestock manure applied to the farm — both what animals deposit while grazing and manure or slurry you spread. In Northern Ireland, anaerobic digestate containing livestock manure counts too. Manufactured fertiliser nitrogen is controlled separately.
Which area should I use?
Use the farm’s agricultural area available for manure. Exclude roads, yards, buildings, woodland (unless grazed in England), water, scrub, quarries and fenced-off or inaccessible land. In England only land inside the NVZ counts; in Northern Ireland the whole region is covered.
How do I count stock that are only on the farm for part of the year?
Enter the average number on the holding over the year. For example, 120 calves that each spend 6 months in the 0–6 month category average 60 for that category.
Do manure exports reduce my loading?
Yes. Nitrogen in manure exported off the farm is deducted, and nitrogen in manure imported is added. In Northern Ireland exports only count if they are recorded with DAERA by the deadline (31 January, or 1 March for derogated farms).
Can I go above 170 kg N/ha?
Only with a grassland derogation. In both Northern Ireland and England, farms with at least 80% grass that are granted a derogation may go up to 250 kg N/ha from grazing livestock manure, subject to strict conditions. Pig and poultry manure stays at 170.
Are the Northern Ireland figures changing?
DAERA consulted on a new Nutrients Action Programme for 2027–2030 that would introduce milk-yield bands for dairy cows, new poultry figures and replace the derogation with a Nutrient Stewardship Programme. Until new regulations are made, the 2019 Regulations figures used here apply.
AR Enviro Consultancy
Close to the limit, or short on storage?
We prepare nutrient management plans, NVZ / Nutrients Action Programme compliance checks and manure export arrangements for farms and AD plants across Northern Ireland and the UK.