Skip to main content
The 170 kg N/ha limit and the five-year record appear in the nitrogen law of every UK nation and of every EU member state, because all of them descend from the same 1991 directive. What changes from one border to the next is who is covered, when the closed periods fall and who knocks on the door. The United States has no common ancestor, so there the rules change state by state.

​
The Law, In Plain Words

Each UK nation has its own instrument. The table sets them side by side. SFI is an England scheme [10]. The spray record duty under retained Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 Article 67 applies across Great Britain [11].

​
Where It Applies

EU member states. Council Directive 91/676/EEC, the Nitrates Directive, sets the frame and leaves the detail to each member state’s action programme. A member state designates zones where water exceeds or risks 50 mg/l nitrate, or applies its programme to its whole territory as Wales and Northern Ireland do. Inside the programme area the 170 kg N/ha livestock manure limit, the winter closed periods and the bans on spreading on frozen, waterlogged or sloping ground near water are common to all. The dates, the field limits, the crop N max values and the record deadlines are set nationally, and a member state can apply to the Commission for a derogation above 170 kg for intensive grassland, as Northern Ireland holds. Each member state reports its water quality to the Commission every four years [12]. United States. There is no federal nitrogen law for farms. The Natural Resources Conservation Service publishes Conservation Practice Standard 590, Nutrient Management, and each state publishes its own version of it. Whether a plan is compulsory is a state decision. Maryland requires one from any farm grossing $2,500 a year or keeping 8,000 lb of live animal weight, with an annual report by 1 March and a winter ban from 16 December to 1 March [13]. Delaware requires one from anyone with 8 or more animal units or applying nutrients to 10 acres or more [14]. Wisconsin makes a plan a condition of farmland preservation payments, cost-share, a large livestock permit or a local ordinance, under NR 151 and ATCP 50 [15]. Where a state ties the plan to a permit or a payment, the state department of agriculture or natural resources checks it.

​
What AgriHub360 Keeps

Each farm carries its nation. Each field carries its designations from the national datasets, including whether it sits in an NVZ. The NVZ checks use the closed periods, the limits and the record deadline of that nation from the table above. The compliance pack is built by nation, in the shape that nation’s regime asks for, and states the retention period that applies. A section with no entries in the period says “nothing recorded”.
Cartoon of a map with four coloured regions, each holding a rule card with its closed-period band in a different place.

Four regions, each with its own rule card and its own closed period.

​
References

  1. legislation.gov.uk. The Nitrate Pollution Prevention Regulations 2015, SI 2015/668.
  2. Defra and Environment Agency, GOV.UK. Using nitrogen fertilisers in nitrate vulnerable zones.
  3. legislation.gov.uk. The Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) Regulations 2021, WSI 2021/77 (W. 20).
  4. Welsh Government. The Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) Regulations 2021: guidance for farmers and land managers.
  5. legislation.gov.uk. The Action Programme for Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (Scotland) Regulations 2008, SSI 2008/298.
  6. Scottish Government. Nitrate Vulnerable Zones.
  7. Scottish Government. Protection of Water Against Agricultural Nitrate Pollution (Scotland) Regulations 1996: implementation report 2020 to 2023, section 6.
  8. legislation.gov.uk. The Nutrient Action Programme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2019, SR 2019/81.
  9. DAERA. Nutrients Action Programme.
  10. Defra and Rural Payments Agency, GOV.UK. Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 (SFI26): scheme information.
  11. legislation.gov.uk. Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009, Article 67, as retained in Great Britain.
  12. European Commission, Directorate-General for Environment. Nitrates.
  13. Maryland Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Nutrient Management: information for farmers.
  14. Delaware Department of Agriculture. Nutrient Management.
  15. Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Nutrient Management.