Farming Rules for Water Updates
Staying up to date with the Farming Rules for Water
Many of you will be aware of the presence of the EA on catchments around the South West over the last 6 months or so. This is in response to the national emphasis on adhering to the Farming Rules for Water (FRfW). The EA visits have focused on identifying whether farms have enough slurry and silage storage and if they are able to manage their nutrients appropriately within their current farming system without damaging soil health or causing pollution of watercourses.
The EA are working with farmers to find solutions and create management plans if they find they don’t currently comply.
What are they? The Farming Rules for Water are a set of rules which help prevent manures, fertilisers and soil getting into the watercourses. Details of the current rules can be found here.
A brief summary of the FRfW are:
- You must take steps to prevent manure, fertiliser and soil getting into watercourses
- Assess pollution risk (ground cover, slope angle, soil type and condition, land drains and distance from watercourses/coastal waters/springs, wells, boreholes)
- Soil test every 5 years
- Adhere to rules about
- Applying fertiliser and reducing associated pollution
- Using and storing manures
- Preventing erosion – through management of livestock and soil
By Wendy Couch
Important notice
The spreading rules have been relaxed this year allowing some spreading of slurries between the management dates of 1st September to the end of February (on shallow or light soils) and 15th October to end of February on all other soil types.
Within these dates, if necessary for crop growth, farmers can apply up to a maximum of 30m³/ha of slurry and high N dirty water (2500gals/acre) every 22 days if required. Applications of Slurry and manure to fields with a P index of 3 and above are now also allowed as long as all the applications are of home produced materials.
For further advice Contact the Farming Advice Service on 03000 200 301.
Updates to the Slurry Investment Scheme
At the beginning of June DEFRA released an update of the proposed Slurry Investment Scheme, due to begin Autumn 2022. This fund is for building new slurry stores with covers (6 months storage), or covering existing stores, which are being increased to 6 months capacity and are already compliant (4months storage).
Other items related to slurry management are also expected to be included. Grants will be 50% funded, minimum £25K and max £250K. WRT advisors will be working with this fund and will be able to help with applications and advice – details to be confirmed in the Autumn newsletter.
You can start preparing now by:
- planning your storage capacity need
- thinking about what sort of store you might build
- choosing where on the farm to put your store
- checking if you need to apply for planning permission
As with other themes in the Farming Investment Fund, you can apply through a 2-stage process, starting with an online eligibility checker (opening in the autumn) followed by a full application (over the winter).
Click here for more details.