- Location
- Acton Scott, South Shropshire
...and a dire response at times from the EA chaps
I hope he gets it right...Thanks for posting the link. Saved me finding it.
I thought the EA Kevin Austin gave very clear and good explanations of the situation since 2018. Overall I would give the EA chaps 9 out of 10 for what was a difficult call yesterday as the Committee members in my view were looking for a bit of blood. And reiterated the issue was of DEFRA making as it was DEFRA that controlled and set the policy for the regulator to implement and had in effect stood to one side leaving EA to hold the baby. Made very good points about increased specialisation in Agricultural livestock production unfortunately leading to localised nutrient enrichment.
The issue was and is manure with high available N. Poultry manures and Slurries - nothing new. And it will have to be for DEFRA to change the policy if these are to be allowed in Autumn. And for the EA to regulate that position. I expect straw based manures position to be relaxed for the coming Autumn use before cereals accepted on most if not all soil types. Anyway it is now for the Minister to make the decision.
Cheers.
He's a great chap to have on board. Chatted to him for an hour or so in the bar at Groundswell. Turns out he has roots near me. Talks a lot of sense and his specialist field is only beginning to be recognised in its importance.Prof Neil really is/was very watchable indeed.
Victoria Prentis call. I think she will backtrack and give the EA instructions to make it easier for farmers. After all only Monday the EA announced it would not be investigating low grade pollution events. I follow a chap on twitter from near kings lynn who pretty much daily posts pictures of dirty water running off an outdoor pig site into a chalk stream. He has notified the EA umpteen times, so he says. Result one visit a year ago and a warning, again so he posts and nothing has changed. Interesting world. Hey ho.I hope he gets it right...
I imagine he would be fun to chat with over a beer...He's a great chap to have on board. Chatted to him for an hour or so in the bar at Groundswell. Turns out he has roots near me. Talks a lot of sense and his specialist field is only beginning to be recognised in its importance.
I was interested in the less than enthusiastic support for biosolids that seemed to be in evidence from some Panel members as well as the Committees.Thanks for posting the link. Saved me finding it.
I thought the EA Kevin Austin gave very clear and good explanations of the situation since 2018. Overall I would give the EA chaps 9 out of 10 for what was a difficult call yesterday as the Committee members in my view were looking for a bit of blood. And reiterated the issue was of DEFRA making as it was DEFRA that controlled and set the policy for the regulator to implement and had in effect stood to one side leaving EA to hold the baby. Made very good points about increased specialisation in Agricultural livestock production unfortunately leading to localised nutrient enrichment.
The issue was and is manure with high available N. Poultry manures and Slurries - nothing new. And it will have to be for DEFRA to change the policy if these are to be allowed in Autumn. And for the EA to regulate that position. I expect straw based manures position to be relaxed for the coming Autumn use before cereals accepted on most if not all soil types. Anyway it is now for the Minister to make the decision.
Cheers.
I was interested in the less than enthusiastic support for biosolids that seemed to be in evidence from some Panel members as well as the Committees.
The Rothamsted guy I had not heard before but concurr an interesting speaker.
Two hours I will not get back but I now know what was truly said at the meeting.
Oh so true... I had not realised it was quite so long.... Still, no worse than the crap Herself was watching on the box....
I was referring to the way in which they tried to defend the way in which they dropped on us all last Autumn that they were suddenly enforcing an autumn spreading ban - then had to backtrack.Thanks for posting the link. Saved me finding it.
I thought the EA Kevin Austin gave very clear and good explanations of the situation since 2018. Overall I would give the EA chaps 9 out of 10 for what was a difficult call yesterday as the Committee members in my view were looking for a bit of blood. And reiterated the issue was of DEFRA making as it was DEFRA that controlled and set the policy for the regulator to implement and had in effect stood to one side leaving EA to hold the baby. Made very good points about increased specialisation in Agricultural livestock production unfortunately leading to localised nutrient enrichment.
The issue was and is manure with high available N. Poultry manures and Slurries - nothing new. And it will have to be for DEFRA to change the policy if these are to be allowed in Autumn. And for the EA to regulate that position. I expect straw based manures position to be relaxed for the coming Autumn use before cereals accepted on most if not all soil types. Anyway it is now for the Minister to make the decision.
Cheers.
I thought what a useful session he provided, nice to get a good livestock focus so much on soils is focusing on arable at the moment.I caught this guy on a webinar lunchtime today. Really very interesting. And I am very pleased to see when I checked out his CV he is on the DEFRA advisory panel.
Richard Bardgett
www.research.manchester.ac.uk
The webinar was 'Zoom into Soil: Regenerative Agriculture" put on by the British Society of Soil Science. Never heard of it before. But I saw the webinar advertised from a link on Twitter by ADAS soil scientist. Assume it will be loaded onto the societies website at some stage.
C'mon, it was all the fault of their masters at DEFRA.... honest guv!I was referring to the way in which they tried to defend the way in which they dropped on us all last Autumn that they were suddenly enforcing an autumn spreading ban - then had to backtrack.
Thanks for posting this, had bookmarked the tweet from EFRA and not got round to listening until today.
EA Man: "we helped 4 thousand farms spread last Autumn..." I wonder how many JFDI anywayI was referring to the way in which they tried to defend the way in which they dropped on us all last Autumn that they were suddenly enforcing an autumn spreading ban - then had to backtrack.
I am genuinely amazed that as many as 4000 farms notified themEA Man: "we helped 4 thousand farms spread last Autumn..." I wonder how many JFDI anyway