Farmers in Great Britain can be granted a derogation from strict nitrogen limits under Nitrate Vulnerable Zones legislation.
Farmers will have to apply individually to the Environment Agency, which monitors compliance with NVZ rules, for permission to exceed the current limit of 170kg/ha of nitrogen from animal manures. Instead, successful applications will have to stay within a 250kg N limit.
The derogation will be a significant relief to dairy farmers facing a dilemma of either reducing animal numbers or finding extra land to stay within the law.
About 50% of England and Wales already falls within an NVZ, but this was raised to nearly 70% on 1 January 2010 with a major extension to the NVZ area. There are four NVZs in Scotland and 31 in Wales.
NVZ derogation - key criteria:
- 80% of agricultural area must be in grass
- Must have a whole farm stocking rate equivalent to no more than 250 kg/N ha (about 1 dairy cow/acre)
- Farmers must apply each year
- No manures on grassland that is to be autumn cultivated
- Ploughed grass must be followed by an N-hungry crop
- P fertilisation plan for each field
- Each farm must have N and P soil anaylsis results
Applications to the Environment Agency can be by phone, online or on paper and must be renewed annually. The next round of application run from October 1 - December 31 2011.
Full details can be found in the NVZ 5a Defra booklet here or for more advice read Ian's Blog
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