The Welsh Government has made short-term amendments to slurry storage rules following a wet summer.

Huw Irranca DaviesMS said he recognised that recent wet weather has created difficult circumstances for some farmers wishing to empty slurry stores before the closed period begins and that some exceptions would be made.

Reacting to the amendment of the Cross Compliance Verifiable Standards related to the Control of Agricultural Pollution ‘NVZ’ regulations, FUW President, Ian Rickman, said: “Over recent months, we have made it abundantly clear to the Cabinet Secretary that challenges were clearly on the horizon for Welsh farmers who cannot comply with these regulations due to matters outside of their control, and many now find themselves in this impossible situation. At the time, we requested an urgent update on this matter and for exemptions to be clearly outlined within the Cross Compliance documentation.

“The FUW therefore welcomes the announcement by the Cabinet Secretary as it offers a lifeline for the 800 or so farming businesses that have applied for infrastructure grant support, and the plethora of others that continue to face other challenges, such as delays in planning applications and the availability of building contractors.”

The statement says: ‘if any farmers are concerned they will not have the required capacity to safely store their slurry during the closed period and have taken all available actions to prevent the need to spread when it is inappropriate to do so, including during the closed periods, they should contact NRW to identify appropriate mitigating actions to minimise the risk of pollution…’

The Welsh Government intends to publish revised Cross Compliance Verifiable Standards by the end of the month.

NFU Cymru Water Quality Review Group Chair Martin Griffiths said: “Over the course of the past few weeks NFU Cymru has been inundated with calls from worried and concerned farmers on the implications of the introduction of closed periods for the spreading of slurry and organic manures with high readily available nitrogen.

“The challenging weather conditions through late summer and into early autumn severely restricted the number of days when it was possible to spread slurry, this means many farmers have now entered the closed period with slurry stores holding significant quantities of slurry. This once again shows the folly of the introduction of regulations that impose a ‘farming by calendar’ approach.

“The written statement from the Deputy First Minister provides some information on changes to the cross compliance verifiable standards, which we hope will reduce the level of penalties that some farmers have received or will face as a result of the impractical and unworkable nature of many elements of these regulations. However, the fact remains that the regulations, including the closed periods for spreading have not changed, and farmers will still be deemed to be in breach of the regulations and subject to potential penalty, albeit in certain circumstances reduced.”

“In the short term there is a clear need for the regulations to include a derogation for spreading during the closed periods in exceptional circumstances.”