Farmer wins £100 in pesticide quiz

Suffolk farmer Paul Howland was the lucky winner of the £100 Right One! prize quiz run by The Voluntary Initiative (VI) at the Cereals event. The quiz sponsored by AIC and CPA showed that most farmers were very aware of the importance of keeping pesticides out of water.

Farmers and sprayer operators were faced with a choice of three sites for filling a sprayer: a compacted field gateway beside a ditch; a hardcore area in the farmyard, and a separate bunded concrete filling area draining to a sump. Most entrants chose the right option – the bunded concrete filling area and the winner was picked from the correct entries.

Mr Howland does all the spraying on his 800 acre, arable farm near Beccles. His pesticide handling area is concrete with a bund; rain water and any run-off goes to a sump which is then sprayed onto an authorised area.

Mr Howland was delighted with his win: "That’s fantastic, I never win anything!"

VI Manager Patrick Goldsworthy said: "Choosing the right site and surface for sprayer filling is a vital step in protecting water from pesticides. Most farmers and operators knew what they should do, although some admitted that their filling site was still not up to scratch."