Business
New rules on water courses could prove costly if ignored
6th October 2011
New rules to protect watercourses from nitrates come into effect on January 1 next year and ignoring the paperwork that goes with them could be expensive for farmers.
The rules introduced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have been imposed on all farmers, whether within a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) area or not, to make them spread nitrogen more carefully. The rules will be included as part of cross compliance checks under the Single Payment Scheme.
Farmers will no longer be allowed to:
n Apply inorganic fertiliser within two metres of surface waters, ponds, rivers, lakes, ditches, or temporarily dry or blind ditches;
n Apply organic manure (FYM) within 10 metres of surface waters, except on land managed for breeding wader birds or as species-rich semi-natural grassland and under certain other restrictions;
n Apply organic manure within 50 metres of a spring, well or borehole, or sources of drinking water.
If farmers do apply organic manure, they will need to keep a map of all surface waters on the holding and land within 10 metres of them; all springs, wells and boreholes on the holding, and within 50 metres of the boundary of the holding, and land within 50 metres of them.
Christopher Turner, a rural land use expert at property consultants Carter Jonas in Newbury, says that farmers within an NVZ zone should be keeping such a plan already and abiding by the rules now being spread to cover the whole industry.
“Our experience is that some farmers have not thought about completing the NVZ paperwork, to prove they are within the rules, yet most of our practice area is covered by an NVZ,” he added.
“Such paperwork is the easiest area for a Rural Payments Agency (RPA) inspector to check when they carry out cross compliance inspections. It’s similarly easy for the RPA to penalise farmers if they do not have all the correct paperwork in place for cross compliance referring to animal movements and record keeping, registering for waste exemptions, completing the Soil Protection Review, and updating the watercourse map every three months.
“Failing to keep everything up together could have real and detrimental impact for every farmer rather than the lesser number who are already being monitored in an NVZ. With farmers’ busy lives, often working long hours seven days a week, paperwork is easy to neglect and catching up is a real burden that grows exponentially.”
The rules introduced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have been imposed on all farmers, whether within a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) area or not, to make them spread nitrogen more carefully. The rules will be included as part of cross compliance checks under the Single Payment Scheme.
Farmers will no longer be allowed to:
n Apply inorganic fertiliser within two metres of surface waters, ponds, rivers, lakes, ditches, or temporarily dry or blind ditches;
n Apply organic manure (FYM) within 10 metres of surface waters, except on land managed for breeding wader birds or as species-rich semi-natural grassland and under certain other restrictions;
n Apply organic manure within 50 metres of a spring, well or borehole, or sources of drinking water.
If farmers do apply organic manure, they will need to keep a map of all surface waters on the holding and land within 10 metres of them; all springs, wells and boreholes on the holding, and within 50 metres of the boundary of the holding, and land within 50 metres of them.
Christopher Turner, a rural land use expert at property consultants Carter Jonas in Newbury, says that farmers within an NVZ zone should be keeping such a plan already and abiding by the rules now being spread to cover the whole industry.
“Our experience is that some farmers have not thought about completing the NVZ paperwork, to prove they are within the rules, yet most of our practice area is covered by an NVZ,” he added.
“Such paperwork is the easiest area for a Rural Payments Agency (RPA) inspector to check when they carry out cross compliance inspections. It’s similarly easy for the RPA to penalise farmers if they do not have all the correct paperwork in place for cross compliance referring to animal movements and record keeping, registering for waste exemptions, completing the Soil Protection Review, and updating the watercourse map every three months.
“Failing to keep everything up together could have real and detrimental impact for every farmer rather than the lesser number who are already being monitored in an NVZ. With farmers’ busy lives, often working long hours seven days a week, paperwork is easy to neglect and catching up is a real burden that grows exponentially.”
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