THE hot topic of NVZ regulations and their effect on farmers was the subject of a talk and farm walk at a County Durham farm last week.

About 30 people gathered at Richard Hodgson's Middleton House Farm at Ingleton, near Darlington, to find out more about the EU regulations which come into force on Thursday.

Before giving a run down of the new rules, Peter Hoey, of Fieldfare Associates, said: "It's something that is coming and we've got to get to grips with it."

He explained that NVZs had previously covered just 8pc of land in England. The EU had said this was not good enough and, as a result, new areas were being introduced to cover 55pc of the country.

Farmers have until December 31 to challenge the decision to place them in a designated area.

Mr Hoey said: "If you are on the edge of an NVZ area, or some of your fields are, then you can challenge it if you want to."

Areas have been designated by measuring nitrate levels in water courses. If those levels are at or above 50mg per litre of water, surrounding farms are classed as being in an NVZ area and must comply with regulations to reduce the amount of nitrate escaping from their land from slurry or manure.

The Environment Agency is responsible for administering the regulations and, as a last resort, can issue fines up to £20,000 for non-compliance.

Those farms affected must keep records for five years, which must include crop and sowing dates, detailed livestock numbers and field areas, nitrate fertilisers and organic manures applied, description of nitrate content from analysis, plus details of imports and exports of manure involving other farms.

The regulations have closed periods when it is illegal to apply fertilisers and organic manures.

The closed period for nitrogen fertilisers is from September 1 to February 1 for arable land and from September 15 to February 1 for grassland.

On light sand or shallow soils, organic manures must not be spread from September 1 to November 1 on grass and autumn sown crops, and the closed period for spring-sown crops in the same types of soil is August 1 to November 1.

"It is not as bad as some people think," said Mr Hoey. "These restrictions only apply to high "available" nitrate manures such as slurry or liquid sewage. There is no closed period for farmyard manure."

Under the regulations, arable land must not receive more than 210kg of nitrate per hectare each year. This falls to 170kg after four years.

The limit for grassland is 250kg per hectare a year.

However, these figures also include manure dropped by grazing animals.

Organic manure is limited to 250kg per hectare, but this does not include droppings from grazing animals.

Other controls include a ban on spreading nitrate fertilisers when fields are waterlogged, flooded or frozen and on steeply sloping fields. An outright ban is imposed on land within ten metres of a water course.

"The good news is that grants are available for farmers who need to replace or renew their manure storage or fixed equipment in order to comply with the regulations," said Mr Hoey.

Farmers could claim 40pc of costs up to a total of £85,000, he added, but this did not apply to those who intended to expand their operations.

He said: "The Government has decided that adequate slurry storage is the key to solving pollution problems on farms and we are going to see a lot more of it."

More detailed record keeping was another major issue and farmers had to find a way of measuring and recording amounts of nitrate fertilisers and manures used more accurately than at present.

"I think we will see more cover crops, as well," added Mr Hoey. "More farmers will plant crops not to be cultivated but to mop up the nitrogen then be put back into the soil in an organic form.