All things Dairy

pine_guy

Member
Location
North Cumbria
Miserable here too, maybe not that much rain though! Cows struggling as housing for fresh has been hijacked by ffing builders doing a channel that had all summer to be done.
We laid a last bit of an impromptu feed area on Friday (in the rain ☹️) for the lows housing. Had it planned to use the area in front of the silage pit that my mid tear stewardship are contributing to, but haven’t manage to finish it as been waiting since July for the electric board to move the supply cable 🤦🏻🤦🏻
 

DairyGrazing

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North West
Does anyone know how the for sale section works. I'm trying to sell 10 calf hutches in the Private Listing section but it says I don't have have enough privileges? So I put it in £350 and under but it has been deleted?
 
We laid a last bit of an impromptu feed area on Friday (in the rain ☹️) for the lows housing. Had it planned to use the area in front of the silage pit that my mid tear stewardship are contributing to, but haven’t manage to finish it as been waiting since July for the electric board to move the supply cable 🤦🏻🤦🏻
All electric boards are utterly useless and charge the earth. We had our new calving shed/ cubicles complete by November. They turned up in April. So 260 calving were done with head torch’s. Something I never want to do again.
 

vantage

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pembs
Bit too much of a gap to cross the cows!
IMG-20211003-WA0001.jpg
 

frederick

Member
Location
south west
just be thankful you didn't get an officer like we did, utter complete jobsworth. Must be 18/24 months of hassle with him, pointless, we are fully compliant, as far as most farmers can be. He even questioned EA own definition of dirty yards, and clean yards, and according to him, water can run up hill ! Absolute nightmare, we even formally complained, which was taken up, and agreed.
Haven't heard anything from him for 6 months, and we have never heard if he was satisfied here. The original visit was over blocked council drains by our farm, and i'll just have a quick look round while i'm here ..
It appears the definition of dirty water has changed under ffrw. Nvz definition is source based. Ffrw simply needs to be nutrient rich and this threshold is in terms of ammonia ppm and it's not very high but without looking at my ea email can't remember.

I have a dirty water system outside an nvz that I'm now told is all slurry and should be stored.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
It appears the definition of dirty water has changed under ffrw. Nvz definition is source based. Ffrw simply needs to be nutrient rich and this threshold is in terms of ammonia ppm and it's not very high but without looking at my ea email can't remember.

I have a dirty water system outside an nvz that I'm now told is all slurry and should be stored.
we rung up the exeter office, the definition according to them, if cattle only walk across it, and scraped x2 day, it is classed as clean water, he didn't like that either, nor could he understand why water from it, couldn't run up hill, to the lagoon, and it's a obvious slope. Pretty sure he's been reined in, following a phone call from his manager, we gathered there had been quite a lot of complaints, mostly justified, manager came out with him, and told us, 'get your gutters working, you will be fine'. That didn't stop him either !
 

Homesy

Member
Location
North West Devon
It appears the definition of dirty water has changed under ffrw. Nvz definition is source based. Ffrw simply needs to be nutrient rich and this threshold is in terms of ammonia ppm and it's not very high but without looking at my ea email can't remember.

I have a dirty water system outside an nvz that I'm now told is all slurry and should be stored.
Email the fudger back and ask him to show you the relevant legislation which requires all yard run off to be stored in an NVZ let alone outside one. These little Hitlers make up their own rules.
 

frederick

Member
Location
south west
Email the fudger back and ask him to show you the relevant legislation which requires all yard run off to be stored in an NVZ let alone outside one. These little Hitlers make up their own rules.
Water which has an ammonia level higher than about 3 mg/l should not be classed as dirty water and should not be spread all year

this is the technical definition of dirty water under the new FFRW when the EA wants to use it. It is definitely no longer source specified.
What we have to get our heads around is the ea are currently moving into a world of absolutely no common sense with their interpretation of the FFRW and they are going to stop all autumn and early winter applications and the next step which they are at now when they read the riot act all farms need 6 months slurry storage.
 

Homesy

Member
Location
North West Devon
Water which has an ammonia level higher than about 3 mg/l should not be classed as dirty water and should not be spread all year

this is the technical definition of dirty water under the new FFRW when the EA wants to use it. It is definitely no longer source specified.
What we have to get our heads around is the ea are currently moving into a world of absolutely no common sense with their interpretation of the FFRW and they are going to stop all autumn and early winter applications and the next step which they are at now when they read the riot act all farms need 6 months slurry storage.
You can't concede to these idiots. Run your irrigator at night and ask them to prove your dirty water was higher than 3mg/l after you have spread it.
Under the current proposals you can still spread on grass. It grows all year round, especially in the South West.
 

frederick

Member
Location
south west
You can't concede to these idiots. Run your irrigator at night and ask them to prove your dirty water was higher than 3mg/l after you have spread it.
Under the current proposals you can still spread on grass. It grows all year round, especially in the South West.
Next visit and we may probably mutually agree for a prosecution to test this.
There is no paperwork to show a crop need after 15th October and before 15 th Jan.
Whenever I now spread a field I leave a bit instead to show the crop is different and therefore a crop need but may prove an expensive fight to win.

If your dirty water in the pit tests over 3 you need to show the pit can store at least 4 months or that it can be pumped somewhere that can store it for 4 months.

The good news is that they are training another 50 of these officers so as dairy farmers many more of us will have a personal introduction to their current view of the world
 

nonemouse

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North yorks
Next visit and we may probably mutually agree for a prosecution to test this.
There is no paperwork to show a crop need after 15th October and before 15 th Jan.
Whenever I now spread a field I leave a bit instead to show the crop is different and therefore a crop need but may prove an expensive fight to win.

If your dirty water in the pit tests over 3 you need to show the pit can store at least 4 months or that it can be pumped somewhere that can store it for 4 months.

The good news is that they are training another 50 of these officers so as dairy farmers many more of us will have a personal introduction to their current view of the world
As dairy farmer numbers keep reducing, we will get to the stage each farm will have their own personal EA clipboard warrior
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Next visit and we may probably mutually agree for a prosecution to test this.
There is no paperwork to show a crop need after 15th October and before 15 th Jan.
Whenever I now spread a field I leave a bit instead to show the crop is different and therefore a crop need but may prove an expensive fight to win.

If your dirty water in the pit tests over 3 you need to show the pit can store at least 4 months or that it can be pumped somewhere that can store it for 4 months.

The good news is that they are training another 50 of these officers so as dairy farmers many more of us will have a personal introduction to their current view of the world
l fondly remember my first EA visit, at the start of the NVZ's, she asked me what l bedded the cubicles down with, straw, that counts as fym and spread any time of year. Things have got a lot worse since then !
We have been told, 1 of the next steps, is a metre on the dirty water irrigator, along with the autumn ban, we will soon need 12 months storage, it's beginning to get stupid, and non sensible, what will happen is every one will empty in the spring, mostly on maize ground, and end up with a mess. But, it all looks very sensible written down, shown to the 'powers' most of whom have zero practical knowledge of how we work.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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