'Set-aside extension sought by NFU to help prevent more field fires

The NFU has applied for an easing of the rules governing set-aside land in order to reduce the risk of fires in the countryside and ease a developing shortage of fodder.

Normally, farmers are required to cut the vegetation on their set-aside land between July 15 and August 15 and are not allowed to graze their animals on set aside land.

But the NFU is applying for exemptions from both those requirements, on the one hand because of the risk that sparks from cutting machinery could set vast swathes of tinder-dry countryside ablaze, and on the other because many livestock farmers need all the grazing they can get.

NFU board chairman Arthur Hill said: “With the fire risk in the countryside already so high, the last thing the Government ought to be doing is adding to it unnecessarily by being inflexible on the set-aside rules. That is precisely what they would be doing if they insisted on farmers cutting set-aside before August 15.

The extension to the cutting period we have asked for, to the end of August, would give time for much-needed rainfall to green-up vegetation and reduce the risk of fire caused by sparks from mowers.”

In the meantime, the lack of rainfall is beginning to have a serious impact on the availability of grazing. The situation has been compounded by lighter than usual crops of silage and hay, meaning that many farmers will be left with insufficient fodder for the winter if they use their stocks now to supplement parched pastures.

The NFU is seeking a general derogation so farmers can graze livestock on set-aside fields where grass elsewhere has dried up.