Environmental Services & Compliance

The environmental side of agriculture and farming is becoming increasingly more important. Falling foul of cross compliance or mismanaging stewardship options could end up costing you dearly. Chemspec agronomists are able to help advise our customers on many environmental and compliance issues.

The vast majority of our area is covered by NVZ’s, therefore it is compulsory to have a full nutrient management plan in place, together with an N-max audit. Any variations away from the standard recommendations must be justified in writing by a FACTs qualified agronomist.

It is very important not to apply either manufactured fertiliser or organic manures with a high readily-available nitrogen content during closed periods. The dates of the closed periods vary according to the land use and soil type, in the case of the organic manure, again we can help ensure you remain compliant.

Anybody using farmyard manure must have a manure management plan and a risk map identifying areas to which FYM must not be applied and show sites of all temporary muck heaps. Something as simple as the siting of a temporary field muck heap is covered by regulations that can easily be over-looked. Just some of those regulations state that you must ensure that you do not build or maintain a field heap: within 10m of surface water (including ditches) or land drains, or within 30m of surface water (including ditches) if the land slopes steeply (12 degrees (1 in 5 or 20%) or greater), or within 50m of a spring, well or borehole.

Diffuse pollution, and in particular soil run-off is becoming more of an issue and an increasing area of concern. Chemspec agronomists receive ongoing training and are experienced in helping to identify and prevent causes of soil erosion. Many assurance schemes now also ask for soil management plans as part of the audit, which we can complete for you. As we are discussing compliance on a regular basis with our customers, we can help to remind you of key dates, such as for the establishment and removal of cover and catch crops. We can also advise and supply you with approved seed mixtures for various stewardship options and cover crops.

Other services we provide in aiding our customers with their farm assurance audits include helping to complete integrated pest management plans and risk assessments for mycotoxins in wheat.

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