At the beginning of August this year, the Environment Agency announced their interpretation of ‘Rule 1a’ which forms part of the Farming Rules for Water, which have been in place since April 2018, to tackle diffuse water pollution from agriculture in England.
Rule 1 a) – Application of organic manures and manufactured fertilisers to cultivated land must be planned in advance to meet soil and crop nutrient needs and not exceed these levels
The Farming Rules for Water stipulate that applications of organic manures and manufactured fertilisers must be planned and matched to soil and crop nutrient requirements to manage any potential risk to water quality. As part of their interpretation of this rule, the Environment Agency have published a Regulatory Position Statement (RPS252) for the spreading of organic manures in the autumn on agricultural land.
Therefore, if you are applying organic manure this autumn to crops with no autumn nitrogen recommendation, you must follow the below steps to ensure the EA’s requirements are met before notifying use of the RPS252.
- Contingency plan outlining storage of manure and exportation of manure is not practical/feasible
- You are only applying to land with a low risk of leaching and run-off (the EA have their own definition of ‘low risk’ land which can be found on the below link)
- You are applying at an application rate that allows no more than 5kg/ha of nitrate-nitrogen to be leached
- You are applying manure when the weather and ground conditions allow
Details on the contingency plan and descriptions of low-risk land can be seen in full here; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spreading-organic-manure-on-agricultural-land-rps-252/spreading-organic-manure-on-agricultural-land-rps-252#contact
Although this gives greater flexibility for applications this autumn, it may mean that some manures must be spread at lower rates than they have been previously, to ensure the risk of leaching is kept under 5kg Nitrate N/ha. To calculate the nitrate losses from each planned application, you can download Manner NPK on the above link, and input your individual application details to see the adjustment in application rate needed to adhere to the 5kg/ha nitrate loss.
If you can comply with the conditions in the RPS252:
Providing the above points can be met, an RPS252 notification can be sent to the EA to confirm use. The only details needed are:
- Business address
- Contact number
- Email address
- Manure type you wish to spread
Once you have notified the EA of use of the RPS252, you do NOT have to wait for a response from the EA.
If you cannot comply with the conditions in the RPS252:
If you cannot comply with the conditions in the RPS252, call 03708 506 506 (general enquiries). The Environment Agency will assess the risk of your activities. For this autumn, they will allow activities that will not cause significant risks (significant risk may result from repeated applications to the same field or spreading close to protected sites). If you follow this method, then you must not start your activities until the Environment Agency confirms you can do so.
The EA are set to withdraw the RPS252 option in March 2022, following this there will be a confirmation of changes moving forward.
