What is a Grassland Derogation?
For each calendar year, you can apply up to 170kg per hectare of nitrogen in livestock manure on your holding in a nitrate vulnerable zone (NVZ). This includes manure deposited directly by grazing livestock and what you spread. This is the loading limit that applies as an average across your farm.
You can apply for a grassland derogation to use a higher limit of up to 250kg of nitrogen per hectare if the nitrogen comes from grazing livestock manure.
Grazing livestock includes:
- Cattle (except for veal calves)
- Sheep
- Deer
- Goats
- Horses
You can only apply for a derogation if at least 80% of the agricultural area of your holding is grass and the application window is currently open until the 29th December. If you were granted a derogation for 2017 you will still have to apply again for 2018 and each year going forward.
How to apply for a Grassland Derogation
To apply for a grassland derogation you can call the Environment Agency national customer contact centre on 03708506506 between 8:00am and 6:00pm Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).
To make it easier we have put together a list of the information you will need to provide to the Environment Agency:
- your farm name
- your farm address
- your county parish holding number (CPH)
- the expected agricultural area and grassland area of your farm in hectares on 1st January 2018
- the expected amount of nitrogen from manure produced by grazing livestock kept on your farm during the year*;
- the expected amount of nitrogen from manure produced by grazing livestock you intend to bring onto or send off your farm during the year*;
- the total amount of nitrogen from manure produced by grazing livestock on your farm during the year*;
- the amount of nitrogen from manure produced by non-grazing livestock on your farm during the year*;
- the amount of nitrogen from manure produced by non-grazing livestock you intend to bring onto or send off on your farm during the year*;
- the total amount of manure nitrogen from non-grazing livestock on your farm during the year.
