Nutrient and Slurry Management advice from the Catchment Sensitive Farming partnership

The Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) partnership explains what its expansion across England means for farmers. 

With the recent expansion of the Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) partnership, farmers across England are now able to access advice on how to produce food in a way which protects water, air and soil; minimising losses and maximising efficiencies.

CSF advisers are locally based with an understanding of the challenges farmers face and provide confidential on-farm advice to help farmers make confident decisions.

One of the areas CSF advisers can help with is to provide farmers and growers with the information and guidance they need to make good slurry management decisions.

This may include help to understand regulatory requirements, and where the farm sits in relation to them. For other farms it may mean help with nutrient management planning to best utilise the nutrient value of their organic manures. This can both save money and ensure that the environment is protected.

Advisers can offer guidance across all aspects of the slurry management chain, from livestock nutrition and housing choices through to storage and spreading methods which reduce nutrient losses to water and air. They can also help to signpost to grant schemes and advise on how to access and apply for those most relevant to the particular farm situation.

CSF have worked with around 24,000 farms since 2006 and 83% of farms who have had contact with CSF advisers agreed they were a person whose advice they could trust. Other areas of advice provided by CSF include:

• Soil management
• Farm infrastructure & machinery set-up
• Water resources and natural flood management
• Local environmental priorities
• Agricultural transition changes

Advisers can offer one-to-one guidance to individual farms but are also always particularly interested in working with groups of farmers or growers to help share information as widely as possible.

• For further information and details of how to get in touch with your local team, see Catchment Sensitive Farming: advice for farmers and land managers.