Pushing their luck with pollution

[Cowabunga]

A new dairy farm outfit near me made me quite angry today. I passed a few field-widths from it on the A487 coast road today and on problem, although the cows are out in a sea of mud and look terrible. That wasn't what made me angry though. When I came back from Aberystwyth a large section of the road had what can only be described as a river in flood running across it. There were two broad patches of fast flowing water that could easily have caused an accident. Now most people would perhaps assume that this was just water draining off the fields, although it was dry beforehand. To me it was obvious and smelt and looked obvious. They were pumping dirty water from their concreted yard reservoir at high volume with no care whatsoever as to where it went. It went straight across the busy main coast road for goodness' sake. It was splashing up from the cars in an obvious dirty sh!t-brown colour. There's just no excuse for it.

Went back a couple of hours later and the road was dry but still with a faint slurry-dirty-water smell. I hope someone from Natural Resources Wales, our Environment Agency, was passing at the time. This is just not acceptable.

 

[Bald Rick]

He who is without sin ...

Is this near Aberaeron?

 

[kiwi pom]

You could always make a call and report them.
People like that are the reason those who do it properly have to jump through more and more hoops.
Back years ago when I used to pump slurry, we used to come across the odd farm that didn't care where it went as long as it was out of the store. They'd always get arsey if you told them you wouldn't do it.
Muppets.

 

[Boydvalley]

Go and knock on their door and explain what’s happened and point out that could be someone more offical knocking. We have to self police.
If they tell you to bu@@er off at least you tried.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Go and knock on their door and explain what’s happened and point out that could be someone more offical knocking. We have to self police.
If they tell you to bu@@er off at least you tried.

They should have been aware.......but perhaps they weren’t, politely informing them would soon give the answer to their attitude.

From our days in school many of us pick up the attitude that it’s not right to be a grass, I have certainly never reported anyone for anything but there are times when you see things being done that just ain’t right.
On occasion it can be difficult to do things just right but some just so blatantly take the pish it’s beyond belief, how they don’t get caught I don’t know, probably because no one wants to be a grass

 

[endeavour]

Sounds like a double whammy, primarily environmental damage but also pr damage to the publics vision of farmers in general, not only by the apparent disregard of pollution regulations as well as animal welfare concerns. West Wales coast is not the most favourable climate to establish grasshopper herds certainly after the soaking we have had recently.

 

[neilo]

Just send them a thank you note when all of Wales entered an NVZ. I was always convinced it was just that sort of behaviour in South Gloucestershire that led to the original NVZ’s being introduced there.

 

[DeeGee]

The farmer needs to be warned about it. It may be a genuine case of not realising the implications.
But, if they get stroppy and really don’t give a damn then it gives us all a bad name, and they deserve every book that gets thrown at them.

 

[Mc115reed]

Would they have known? Iv spread sh!t before perfectly innocently at a light rate 3-4000G/acre and had the call too say that it’s running like a river from a land drain 5 fields away these things happen sometimes....

 

[Tarw Coch]

Would they have known? Iv spread sh!t before perfectly innocently at a light rate 3-4000G/acre and had the call too say that it’s running like a river from a land drain 5 fields away these things happen sometimes....

Of you were in an NVZ, other than the fact you wouldn’t be able to spread at the moment, 3-4000 gallons to the acre wouldn’t be considered a light rate, iirc 2000 is maximum early in the year when the spreading ban lifts.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Just send them a thank you note when all of Wales entered an NVZ. I was always convinced it was just that sort of behaviour in South Gloucestershire that led to the original NVZ’s being introduced there.

Quite agree, although do you read the County Times there, if you have last weeks, 11th December to hand have a look on the far right of page 17, it lists the number of times and for how many hours sewage has been released into rivers in south Shropshire last year, it’s quite alarming

 

[Mc115reed]

Of you were in an NVZ, other than the fact you wouldn’t be able to spread at the moment, 3-4000 gallons to the acre wouldn’t be considered a light rate, iirc 2000 is maximum early in the year when the spreading ban lifts.

Lol ... and in the real world... most farmers consider 5000 a light rate think Iv spread about 50 million gallon this year and the lightest rate a farmer has asked for is 3000[emoji849][emoji849][emoji849][emoji849]

 

[Hard Graft]

Would they have known? Iv spread sh!t before perfectly innocently at a light rate 3-4000G/acre and had the call too say that it’s running like a river from a land drain 5 fields away these things happen sometimes....

for us 2500 gal/ac is a heavy rate and 1500 is normal as don't want to over load and harm soil biology. little and often is far better

 

[Dry Rot]

I know nothing about dairy farming, even less about NVZs, but I always listen to Farming on Radio 4 in a semi comatosed state at 5.45am. I even had to look up River Wye to discover it's in Wales.....

This is what I heard today:

18/12/20 - Phosphates in the River Wye

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 18/12/20 - Phosphates in the River Wye, drive-in carols and New Red Tractor Chair

Over 60% of the River Wye is in breach of new phosphate pollution standards.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[thesilentone]

Sad to read. This is the type of silly attitude that brings regulations to the majority. We are heading towards the day when the industry is going to have to take a stand against itself. Neilo is on the money, I've seen it happen, especially in the health and safety world. No matter how hard you beat the drum, some are deaf.

 

[7610 super q]

The fact that it hasn't stopped raining since the " drought " ended in mid June doesn't help. Basically only 2 months of the year where field work is possible. Not that I'm condoning the actions above. I was going to launch into a rant about big farms = big pollution till I remembered my dear old neighbour (70 acres ) let his lagoon overflow into the nearest stream on a regular basis. This was way back in the 1970's /80's.

 

[vantage]

I know nothing about dairy farming, even less about NVZs, but I always listen to Farming on Radio 4 in a semi comatosed state at 5.45am. I even had to look up River Wye to discover it's in Wales.....

This is what I heard today:

18/12/20 - Phosphates in the River Wye

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 18/12/20 - Phosphates in the River Wye, drive-in carols and New Red Tractor Chair

Over 60% of the River Wye is in breach of new phosphate pollution standards.

www.bbc.co.uk

Not condoning what has happened in the OP’s post, but you have to remember other industries also contribute to pollution in a catchment, yet it is ALWAYS agricultural that takes the flak.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I'm not questioning the op if he saw what he saw , but find it strange when they have a massive lined storage facility there , could it not be just run off from the fields [emoji848]
I suppose that is a question !
I'm glad I got out of cows when I did
It was torhure at times then .
And when the pit was full we did not have pipeline systems back then
Hope Y,All get some piece over Christmas, God Bless [emoji319]

 

[Grassman]

From our days in school many of us pick up the attitude that it’s not right to be a grass, I have certainly never reported anyone for anything but there are times when you see things being done that just ain’t right.

I was chatting to someone about a serious violent crime. He knew who did it but wouldn't say anything to police because he wasn't a "grass"
I asked what if the victim was your child. "Ah well thats different " he says

 

[milkloss]

Not condoning what has happened in the OP’s post, but you have to remember other industries also contribute to pollution in a catchment, yet it is ALWAYS agricultural that takes the flak.

Yes, just look at how NVZs were designated in the first place. In our instance the only bad river test was immediately down stream from a water works. The fact they had the position of the water works wrong on the map (away from the river) was ignored. But as the majority of the land area is agric, agric got the blame.

It’s bullsh1t basically and it’s got to stop.