Farmer Focus: Struck by nitrate vulnerable zone problems

Well I suppose I should be wishing everyone a happy new year, but at West Galdenoch this year all the bells brought in was nitrate vulnerable zone (NVZ) legislation.

It follows six years of efforts through a voluntary group with 50-plus farmers, in which we managed to bring down the nitrate level to almost the legal requirement.

More than 47 slurry stores were built in the local area, but have only been in use for two to three years so we would expect in a few years these will take full effect. Therefore as group we think the whole thing is nonsense.

See also: Read more from our Livestock Farmer Focus writers 

The fact is the Scottish Water Directive hasn’t got the balls to stand up to Brussels and ask for common sense to prevail through a voluntary initiative, but instead too willingly enforce legislation.

The biggest bugbear is that our farm is classed as sandy/gravel, meaning we can’t spread slurry after 1 September (opening 1 January), which is ridiculous as grass grows year-round here and September is usually one of our driest months.

See also: Deadline for grassland NVZ rule relaxation nears

Also we cut or graze grass until November. These are rules created for the east side of the country and are not fit for purpose here.

My next issue is with Scottish Environment Protection Agency and planning authorities regarding my dugout slurry lagoon.

They claim I’m a flood risk, which is hilarious, so I have had to spend a further £1,200 on topographical surveys and £2,800 on a hydrologist to write a report with all the calculations to say “it’s not in a flood plain”.

At the beginning of December we stopped milking three-times-a-day and moved to four-times-a-day and by two-times-a-day; so all cows under 100 days in milk are milked four times, the rest are on two. So far we probably lost 1-1.5 litres a cow, but we’ve cut labour by 98 hours a week.

Our feed costs are still 4p/litre less compared to this time last year and so is the milk price, so let’s hope there are not too many more drops to come.

Gary Mitchell milks 800 cows, with heifers reared on a local farm. Gary zero grazes 80ha of the 195ha he owns. He is regional board chairman for NFU Scotland.