The Environment Agency (EA), the UK body responsible for enforcing laws that protect the environment including serving improvement notices to farmers over their slurry stores, has told producers to start their preparations immediately.
This is largely due to what’s widely expected to be Britain’s wettest summer in a century, following on from a wet winter and spring. All of which has contributed to putting pressure on farms’ slurry storage capacity to date.
Inadequate slurry stores can lead to spillages that can be both catastrophic for the environment and lead to legal action and hefty fines for producers.
The EA recommends farmers to have 6 months’ worth of storage available to help compliance with the Farming Rules for Water requirements to spread only according to crop and soil need.
In addition, the body has urged producers to ensure the following:
- Have adequate storage capacity to see you through winter without the need to spread
- Cover tanks, lagoons and pits during the summer
- Fix training and clear gutters to ensure separation of clean and dirty water
- Refrain from taking sludge, digestate or other materials
The EA is encouraging farmers to contact them for advice if necessary. If you have any questions or concerns, speak to a local EA Officer or call the EA’s National Customer Contact Centre hotline on 03708 506 506 (UK readers only).
The agency said in a statement: “A wet winter and spring has put pressure on slurry stores already, with many farmers reporting concerns around managing volumes as the increased rainfall meant that they were both accumulating more slurry and unable to spread it on their fields.
“Even those who put preparations in place last year still faced storage issues, which is why the EA is stepping up to support farmers through another potentially difficult winter season.”
How prepared are British dairy farmers?
Almost two thirds (64%) of UK dairies have less than 6 months of slurry storage, dairy consultancy Kite found in a recently-published report exposing the costs of climate resilience for dairy producers.
Kite estimated that farms need to have more than 8 months of storage if they were to minimize the risk of water pollution and meet nitrogen limits.
But only 15% of the dairies surveyed by the consultancy said they were equipped to store 8 months or more of slurry.
In addition, just 8% of farms in the sample admitted to have covered slurry stores, with almost two thirds (65%) of slurry being stored in lagoons and just 5% under buildings.
Due to this lack of preparedness, the vast majority (85%) of UK dairies would need to invest in slurry storage to meet the climate resilience benchmark of 8 months, according to the firm.
One way to help finance store improvements is via Defra’s Slurry Infrastructure Grant, or via capital funding available through the Countryside Stewardship Capital Grants scheme.
According to Met Office estimations, 2024 could bring close to 50 days of rain in the summer alone, making for the wettest summer since Titanic sank. To date, 1912 is considered to be the wettest summer on record in the UK, with 55 days of rain. In 2023, Brits experienced 40 days of rain.
Meanwhile, last winter was also branded the wettest since 19th century, with the period from July to December 2023 being the wettest since 1890.