Farmers in Wales face slurry spreading restrictions from 15 October, with the FUW urging a more flexible approach
Welsh farmers are calling for a temporary relaxation of slurry spreading restrictions after an exceptionally dry season left many farms short of fodder and carrying out field work later than usual.
The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) wants the Welsh Government to introduce a blanket derogation ahead of the autumn closed period, allowing farmers more time to spread slurry and take silage crops where conditions remain suitable.
For most grassland soils in Wales, the closed period for spreading organic manures with high levels of readily available nitrogen, including slurry and poultry manure, runs from 15 October to 15 January.
The FUW argues that fixed dates do not always reflect weather, soil and crop conditions and wants a more flexible, risk-based approach to the rules.
Its latest proposals are being set out in a briefing and policy position paper launched at the Usk Show on Saturday, 12 September.
FUW President Ian Rickman said: “If this year has shown us anything, it is that we cannot farm by calendar alone.”
He said the exceptionally dry season had affected fodder availability, meaning some farmers would be grazing livestock, spreading slurry and taking silage cuts later than originally planned.
The union is asking the Welsh Government to allow farmers to continue carrying out that work before winter where conditions are appropriate.
Mr Rickman said the derogation would enable farmers “to appropriately apply nutrients and take silage crops before the winter period”.
The request forms part of a wider FUW campaign for changes to the Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) Regulations 2021.
While supporting action to protect water quality, the union says the existing regulations create significant financial, practical and administrative pressures and do not adequately reflect the diversity of farming conditions across Wales.
Mr Rickman said: “We are reiterating our calls for a more targeted, proportionate and risk-based approach, including greater flexibility around slurry spreading, a review of the 170kg per hectare nitrogen limit and simpler record-keeping requirements.”
The FUW also wants greater emphasis placed on cases involving genuine environmental harm rather than administrative breaches.
“We maintain our view that regulatory efforts should focus on genuine environmental risk, rather than placing disproportionate emphasis on paperwork,” Mr Rickman said.
The union said data included in its briefing, sourced from Natural Resources Wales, showed that a significant proportion of non-compliances related to administrative and record-keeping requirements rather than confirmed pollution incidents or environmental damage.
Its updated position follows an independent review of the regulations carried out by Dr Susannah Bolton.
That review recommended exploring greater flexibility, including alternatives to fixed closed periods, reviewing nitrogen limits and simplifying administrative requirements.
The FUW is now urging the Welsh Government to work with the agricultural industry on both immediate measures for this autumn and longer-term reforms to the regulations.
It says any revised system should continue to protect water quality while also taking greater account of practical farming conditions, food production and the viability of farm businesses.