Potential ban on solid urea - Defra’s Reducing ammonia emissions from urea fertilisers consultation

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
And spread about the Facebook. Expect 100000 vegans etc filling it in under fake names.

Zero plans to reduce any waste or pollution caused by leisure or tourism. Ffs they can't even stop folk chucking McDonald's wrappers out of their cars even when there is a receipt that can identify the owner.

Still I look forward to my £20k handout to enable me to go liquid.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Is it just me that thinks that Yara and CF, along with other sellers of AN are rubbing their hands with glee about this proposal? Less competition to keep AN prices sensible by restricting the availability and competitiveness of urea. Or am I just being cynical?

A link to the survey was posted in the Fertiliser Price Tracker thread, where I also replied to it having replied to the consultation's loaded questions.
 

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
And spread about the Facebook. Expect 100000 vegans etc filling it in under fake names.

Zero plans to reduce any waste or pollution caused by leisure or tourism. Ffs they can't even stop folk chucking McDonald's wrappers out of their cars even when there is a receipt that can identify the owner.

Still I look forward to my £20k handout to enable me to go liquid.

Good luck with that, most liquid is a mix of U/AS or U/AN/AS.
Frontier will sell you an inhibitor right enough, but it will increase your costs / reduce profit by £15/Ha for sweet FA in the way of environmental benefit.
 

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
The Times is sticking the boot in too. Apparently their 'environment editor' hasn't looked at the evidence which shows that the UK is predominantly too cold and wet, and with soils that aren't predominantly chalk, for Urea to be a problem.
But hey ho, typical UK knee jerk reaction to ban it nationwide.

Farmers face ban on using fertiliser linked to pollution and habitat loss

  • The Times
  • 4 Nov 2020
  • Ben Webster Environment Editor
img

Farmers face being banned from using a type of fertiliser that causes air pollution and threatens wild flowers.
The government estimates that banning solid urea fertiliser would prevent more than £1 billion of damage to health by 2030.
Up to half of the fertiliser evaporates, causing ammonia emissions that react with other pollutants to produce fine particles whose microscopic size allows them to penetrate the lungs and enter the bloodstream, making them the most dangerous form of air pollution.
The fertiliser also causes excess nitrogen in soil, which promotes the growth of brambles, nettles and hogweed. These crowd out wild flowers such as harebell and bird’s-foot trefoil.
A ban on the sale or use of solid urea fertiliser is the preferred option in a consultation started by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Other options include requiring a chemical to be added to the fertiliser to reduce the pollution it causes or limiting farmers to using it in winter when cool, wet conditions mean less evaporates.
The Clean Air for All Campaign by The Times is calling for all sources of air pollution to be addressed under a new Clean Air Act. Defra admitted yesterday that the government is set to miss its target of reducing ammonia emissions by 8 per cent on the 2005 level by the end of this year. Emissions of ammonia fell by 21 per cent between 1990 and 2013 but increased by 10 per cent up to 2017.
Defra expects farmers to switch to using more ammonium nitrate fertiliser, which is dearer but causes less to evaporate. A ban is expected to cost farmers £132 million up to 2030 and result in an extra 388,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate being needed per year.
The National Farmers’ Union urged the government not to ban urea, which it said was “safer to handle [than ammonium nitrate] as well as helping to maintain a competitive fertiliser market in the UK”.
Ammonium nitrate can cause explosions if not stored safely, as happened in Beirut in August in a disaster that killed more than 200 people.
George Eustice, the environment secretary, said: “Ammonia emissions are causing harm to sensitive habitats. Any changes will need to be made in a way that is realistic and achievable for farmers, but which help us to achieve our targets for air quality.”
Simon Birkett, founder of the campaign group Clean Air in London, said: “More technical measures and lifestyle changes will be needed if we are to reduce ammonia emissions.”
Jenny Hawley, policy manager at the charity Plantlife, said: “Action from landowners, industry and government to [bring down] rising ammonia emissions is urgently needed.”
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Is it just me that thinks that Yara and CF, along with other sellers of AN are rubbing their hands with glee about this proposal? Less competition to keep AN prices sensible by restricting the availability and competitiveness of urea. Or am I just being cynical?

A link to the survey was posted in the Fertiliser Price Tracker thread, where I also replied to it having replied to the consultation's loaded questions.
I bet they have been sticking the knife in especially CF. I noticed on their website their is a big testimonial from Sean sparling, head of the association of independent agronomist also spouting of their rhetoric. What a load of bulls**t.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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

  • 1,292
  • 1
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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