Farmers slam new slurry control plans as ‘excessively blunt’

PROPOSED new controls on how Scottish farmers store and use silage, slurry and digestate have been condemned as ‘excessively blunt and ill-thought-out’.

These nutrient-rich materials are an integral part of the day-to-day functioning of modern agricultural businesses – but that same chemical potency makes them a pollution risk, and has made their handling a political issue, and part of the broader debate on industrial emissions.

Responding to the Scottish Government’s recent consultation on the storage of silage, slurry and digestate – and the application of slurry and digestate to land as fertiliser – the National Farmers Union Scotland this week highlighted ‘significant and potentially damaging costs’ associated with the proposals, and noted that the actual benefits from such a clampdown were at best ‘unknown’.

More than 540 of the union’s members responded to a survey on the proposals, and case studies from all parts of the nation have been included in the union’s response, in an effort to illustrate the ‘huge costs’ that would arise from the implementation of Scotgov’s plan, which would oblige many farmers to upgrade and increase the capacity of their on-farm storage facilities.

President Martin Kennedy said: “NFUS fully supports policies and practices that aim to reduce emissions and diffuse pollution associated with agricultural activity and believes all farm businesses can and should play their part in meeting climate change challenges and safeguarding water quality. However, responses from our membership clearly show that, if unchanged or unsupported, these proposals bring a costly over-reliance on regulatory compliance that is highly unlikely to yield the desired policy outcomes.”