Farmer and Land Owner Environmental pollution control

Good Agricultural Practice

Farmers and Land Owner who enter into grant assisted schemes for management, habitat improvement or capital work are required to comply to "Good Agricultural Practice" as laid down in the Defra publications. The UK has wide-ranging environmental protection legislation. These items make up the minimum environmental standards for the purpose of other articles of the Regulation 1257/1999. This legislation is enforced by other Government Agencies or local authorities. Although DEFRA staff do not have the expertise to enforce this legislation in detail. They do conducting regular on-the-spot inspections of compliance with the schemes and if they suspect any clear breaches of the legislation they will inform the relevant authority and ask them to carry out full inspection.
See also: http://www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/docs/national_pre03/annexes/annexiv.htm

Manner. Helping you make the most of nitrogen

Organic manures are a valuable source of plant available nitrogen (N). However, using either too much or too little N can adversely affect crop yields and quality. By integrating manure and inorganic fertiliser N additions, crop yields and quality will be optimised and pollution risks reduced.

MANNER is a decision support system that can be used to accurately predict the fertiliser nitrogen value of organic manures on a field specific basis. MANNER has been developed using results from the latest research, funded by DEFRA, on organic manure utilisation on agricultural land.
See also:http://www.adas.co.uk/manner/frameset.html

Planet Nutrient Management

PLANET is a newly developed, computerised version of Defra's industry standard 'Fertiliser Recommendations (RB209)' book. It will provide farmers and advisers with a quick and easy way of obtaining RB209 recommendations for arable, horticultural or grassland crops in each field, each year, taking account of the crop nutrient requirement as well as the nutrients supplied from organic manures, soil and fertilisers. It will allow the user to develop a nutrient and manure application plan for a group of fields covering the use of nitrogen (N), phosphate (P2O5), potash (K2O), magnesium (as MgO), sulphur (as SO3), sodium (as Na2O) and lime. The plan can be modified during the season and actual applications recorded. Last year's field records together with other information will be used to generate next years RB209 recommendations. Field histories and recommendations can be printed off.

The following additional calculation modules are planned for PLANET version 2.

• Farm-gate nutrient audit
• Farm organic manure inventory
• Slurry storage requirements
• NVZ organic manure nitrogen loading
• Whole-farm fertiliser and lime buying

Note. The information supplied by PLANET is technically applicable in England, Wales and Northern Ireland but may not be fully applicable elsewhere.
See also: http://www.planet4farmers.co.uk/welcome/index.html

Nitrate Vulnerable Zones

• Surface freshwaters which contain or could contain, if preventative action is not taken, nitrate concentrations greater than 50mg/l.
• Groundwaters which contain or could contain, if preventative action is not taken, nitrate concentrations greater than 50mg/l.
• Natural freshwater lakes, or other freshwater bodies, estuaries, coastal waters and marine waters which are eutrophic or may become so in the near future if protective action is not taken.
• A total of 55% of England was designated as a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) in October 2002 (this includes the 8% originally designated in 1996).
• Maps of the NVZs are available via this link. This interactive, mapping service can be used to determine exactly which fields are located in the new NVZs and why an area of land has been included within a NVZ.
• The Statutory Instrument formally designating the NVZs in England is available via this link.
• Farmers located in the NVZs have been required to apply Action Programme measures to reduce nitrate leaching since 19 December 2002.