Nitrate Vulnerable Zones

November 26th, 2008

As of 1^st January 2009 new regulations extending the area designated as Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZ’s) and also revising the rules within those zones come into force. Some of the measures will be subject to transitional arrangements (e.g. the storage capacity requirements comes into force from 1^st January 2012).

If you land was not included within a current NVZ but will be included for the first time in the extended areas on the 1^st January 2009, the restrictions do not come into force until 1^st January 2010.

The key measures within the revised Action Programme include:

Whole farm manure N loading limit: Establishes a limit of 170 kg/ha of total N from livestock manures (deposited during grazing and by spreading) per calendar year, averaged across the farmed area.
Closed period (organic manures): Prohibits the spreading of organic manures with high available nitrogen content during specified periods. The length of the closed periods ranges from 3 – 5 months, and it applies to all soil types.
Manure storage: Requires farms to provide sufficient storage facilities to store all slurry produced by livestock during a period of 6 months for pigs and 5 months for cattle, and to store all poultry manure for a period of 6 months.
Closed period (manufactured nitrogen fertilisers): Prohibits the spreading of manufactured nitrogen fertiliser during specified periods unless there is a crop nitrogen requirement.
Crop nitrogen requirement limit: Requires farmers to plan their applications of nitrogen to crops and to comply with an upper cap on nitrogen applications (N max), assuming a set level of efficiency of nitrogen supply from any organic manure applications.
Spreading locations: Requires farmers to undertake a written assessment to identify areas of land at risk of runoff and causing water pollution. Applications of nitrogen fertiliser and organic manures to areas of land identified as posing a high risk of runoff are prohibited.
Spreading techniques: Prohibits the use of high trajectory application techniques for spreading slurry. Additionally, applications of organic manure to bare soil or stubble will require incorporation into the soil in certain situations.
Record-keeping: Establishes a requirement to keep a record of all N applications to land to facilitate compliance checking, and all to keep records of livestock numbers kept on the holding.

Further information on NVZ’s can be obtained from www.defra.gov.uk and maps of the revised extended zones are available from www.magic.gov.uk. Should you wish to discuss NVZ’s in more detail please contact us.