2.—(1) If land has carried a crop of oil-seeds, grain legumes or cereals which has been harvested using a combine harvester or a mower, a farmer must ensure that, throughout the period beginning with the first day after harvest and ending on the first day of March in the following year, one of the following conditions is met on that land at all times—
(a)the stubble of the harvested crop remains in the land;
(b)the land is left with a rough surface, following ploughing, discing, tine cultivation or any other suitable agricultural method;
(c)the land is prepared as a seedbed for a crop, with the crop to be sown within a period of 10 days beginning with the day after final seedbed preparation;
(d)the land is under cultivation sequences used to create a stale seedbed; or
(e)the land is sown with a temporary cover crop, so long as, if the cover crop is grazed out or cultivated out, the condition in sub-paragraph (b) must be met on the land, as soon as is practicable without breaching the requirements in paragraph 2, and for the remainder of the period.
(2) In this paragraph, “stale seedbed” means an area of land which is subject to shallow cultivations to stimulate weed germination as part of a strategy of weed control.