A Surrey farmer is demanding clarity from the Environment Agency (EA) on behalf of all farmers over its effective ban on most manure applications to arable land in the autumn.
Peter Knight has an agreement with Thames Water to spread treated sewage sludge, also known as “biosolids”, each autumn on a third of the fields at his 160ha home farm in Hambledon.
But new guidance published by the EA on 3 August on the spreading of organic manure looks set to have a big impact on his farming business – and many others across England.
