The Reduction and Prevention of Agricultural Diffuse Pollution (England) Regulations 2018

Managing livestock and soil

10.—(1) A land manager must ensure that poaching is prevented within 5 metres of inland freshwaters or coastal waters.

(2) The land manager must ensure that a livestock feeder is not positioned on agricultural land—

(a) within 10 metres of inland freshwaters or coastal waters, or

(b) within 50 metres of a spring, well or borehole.

(3) For agricultural land to which paragraph (2) does not apply, the land manager must ensure that any factors which mean there would be a significant risk of agricultural diffuse pollution are taken into account when deciding where to locate a livestock feeder.

(4) In paragraph (3), the factors include those in regulation 4(2).

(5) In addition to paragraphs (1) to (3), the land manager must ensure that reasonable precautions are taken to prevent agricultural diffuse pollution resulting from land management and cultivation practices on agricultural land.

(6) Without limiting what may otherwise be done to comply with paragraph (5), examples of reasonable precautions include—

(a) in relation to soil—

(i) establishing crops early in autumn months, and during dry conditions,

(ii) planting headland rows and beds across the base of any sloping land,

(iii) undersowing or sowing a cover crop to stabilise soil after harvest,

(iv) breaking up compacted soil, and

(v) establishing grass buffer strips in valleys, along contours or slopes, field edges or gateways, and

(b) in relation to livestock—

(i) moving livestock regularly,

(ii) erecting fencing around inland freshwaters or coastal waters, and

(iii) wintering livestock on well-drained, level fields.

(7) In paragraph (5), “land management and cultivation practices” includes—

(a) creating farm tracks on, or gateways to, the land,

(b) establishing seedbeds, polytunnels or tramlines,

(c) cleaning out ditches,

(d) installing drainage or irrigation, and

(e) irrigating crops or spraying them with pesticides, herbicides or fungicides.