The Department of Agriculture was in touch following our lead piece last week that stocking rate was not the key driver of water quality deterioration or improvement.

In essence it recognises that stocking rate is a very blunt instrument. However, it highlighted that it is now moving to a ‘nutrient surplus’ model, which will mean different actions and farm responses for different soil types and different parts of the country.

That’s all positive, but the bottom line is that some farms need more nutrient storage and we need to move actions and recommendations to a catchment level, bringing all farmers on the journey.

Anything less than this will mean that if we are successful in retaining the nitrates derogation, it will only be for a very temporary time period.