Farmers are being told to take advantage of upcoming grants designed to help them improve slurry management as regulation grows ever tighter to prevent pollution.
Nitrate Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) rules now apply across most of the UK, and the loss of phosphate into water has rapidly become a major concern.
Livestock producers are expecting rules to require six months’ slurry storage, and for many, that will require significant capital investment.
Defra has already offered support for investment in improved slurry management ahead of a major grant scheme later this year.
This is specifically for covered stores with six months capacity. Elsewhere, Scotland is also offering support for covering slurry stores.
Flossy Freeman-Inglis, of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV), said farmers might as well take advantage of the grants to help pay for the law change.
“Although full details are yet to be unveiled, the money is expected to be for new or substantially enlarged or reconstructed stores with an impermeable fixed, flexible or floating cover," she said.
Clay lined or earth bank lagoons might also qualify, providing they have leak protection, the CAAV explains.
Planning permission – where it’s not a fundamental obstacle - is a delay, and the CAAV is urging government to give supporting permitted development rights to assist the improvements it is seeking.
Other schemes expect claimants to have five years’ use of the store, so some tenant farmers may need to extend their term to qualify.
The grant scheme is unlikely to cover the full cost of works, leading to questions about what happens if the landlord or tenant cannot fund the remainder.
In those cases, it’s worth examining whether the present livestock business is likely to last, according to Jeremy Moody, secretary of the CAAV.
“That may prompt discussion about change in the business or even retirement and succession planning," he said.
"And if that’s the case, then look at whether that is best done while the Lump Sum Scheme is available.”
Under the scheme, tenants can take their future Basic Payments as a single sum, providing they retire and give up their tenancy by 2024.
“It can lubricate negotiations, but the deadline is 30 September 2022, so you need to think about change now," he added.
"Don’t leave it until the Slurry Investment Grant opens as by then it may be too late.”
