Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee - autumn spreading of manures

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
...and a dire response at times from the EA chaps

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.
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
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 hope he gets it right...
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
I hope he gets it right...
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.

And he posts sewage being released into the stream as it passes through Kings Lynn (for balance).
 
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steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
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.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
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.

I find those committees interesting and very frustrating at the same time. The MPs generally I think are poor. But that is me being critical. Sos.

I thought the Water UK chap was polished young corporate professional. His angle was - look we have 3 million tonnes of 'product' I shouted at the computer screen 'lets get get real it is your constituents shyte' but sadly he never said that, to get rid of (dispose of in an environmentally sensible way - would be corporate speak. And if we cannot spread it to land it will involve Billion spent on Incinerators (and how will that look on the water rates bill!!!) So he had a good political story.

George rabbited on that farmers are angelic and should be left alone. The Chair Neil Parish was like having a umpire supplied by the Home side who gives LBWs for his side when they cannot get a wicket and not for yours (had those). Neither tackled the issue of high N availability and Phosphates in some manures. And the geographic specialization in livestock production that has occurred in the last fifty years which is the root cause of any issues on a catchment basis. Which is why the EA did provide some balance, in my view.

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.

Cheers.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
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 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.


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.
 
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 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.
 
Location
East Mids
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.


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.
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.
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
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.
EA Man: "we helped 4 thousand farms spread last Autumn..." I wonder how many JFDI anyway :)
 
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SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

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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