Soil Protection Review

Just a quick reminder that your Soil Protection Review, which is part of your cross compliance requirements, needs to be updated for 2012 by 31st December.

The purpose of the Soil Protection Review is to tackle the degradation threats to soil. This past year has been a challenging one for soils (and farmers!) due to the intensity of the rainfall and how wet the soils have become. So it is important that you review your soil management measures and how successful they have been.

How do I complete the Review?

If you are registered with the Government Gateway you can do the review online by going to www.gov.uk/soil-protection-review. It states here that if you do it online, you reduce your chances of an inspection.

Alternatively, you can complete your Soil Protection Review 2010 booklet. If you need a further copy of this to make more amendments, then you can download one of these from the website above (or ring us and we will organise one for you).

What do I need to do?

You need to review your soil risks table on page 10. Have other soil problems surfaced in such an extreme year?

Review your soil risk map or your soil risk table on pages 13-15. Has there been runoff problems this year, not seen previously? Do any of the risk ratings need to be amended?

Review the effectiveness of your soil plan – pages 17 – 43 depending upon cropping. Did it work this year? Have you had to take more stringent measures to control runoff/protect soil structure?

Finally, update your record of when you have had to access waterlogged ground, why, and what remedial action you have had to take to repair soil damage.

Post Harvest Management Requirements

This one has been a real tester this year. Remind yourself of the post harvest management options on page 47 and ensure you have complied as much as possible.

If you would like help completing your review, please do not hesitate to contact us as soon as possible in the New Year