Over the past few years farmers across Britain have been bombarded with piece after piece of red tape which has either been generated from within our own shores at Westminster or from further afield through our MEPs in Brussels.

After generations of performing everyday tasks in a standard fashion such as spraying crops, spreading manure and planting crops the European Union, most notably, has over recent years began to instruct farmers native to their own lands about how to perform these duties. Foreign ministers have constructed many legal obstacles, barriers and hoops for farmers to jump over, under and through thus adding much, and arguably unnecessary expense, to an industry that itself is not particularly thriving in the current economic climate.

One of the most recent issues to arise is the implementation of the European Commission Nitrates Directive which came into force on 1st January 2009 with area by area of the country being engulfed by its overarching rules and regulations. Its single most striking consequence is the prevention of farms in designated Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZ) from spreading nitrogen based manures, fertilisers and pesticides between certain months of the year.

The logic in this would seem very reasonable and sound as quite rightly man-made products such as sprays should indeed be prevented from contaminating nearby water supplies. However, when it is considered that natural cow slurry is one of the substances regulated under the NVZ it is arguable that EU legislation has gone slightly over board considering for many decades such practices have gone on unnoticed without any interruption and without any problems. Depending on a farm’s location and soil type, slurry is now not permitted to be spread for up to 6 months of a calendar year. This has consequently led to many farmers shutting down dairies, diversifying from keeping store cattle and for many others it has meant spending tens of thousands of pounds to erect new slurry stores and purchase new spreading equipment in order to comply with this new directive which will apply to all NVZ affected farms by 1st January 2012 with no exceptions permitted.

This move has been welcomed by many but loathed by those losing out as a result. There will no doubt be further regulations to follow.