Silage is used as animal feed throughout the winter, though there are rules that must be followed to ensure the fermented, high-moisture fodder is stored safely and correctly across farms. 

With farmers set to put first cut silage in the clamp throughout the summer, Charles Foster, of leading farm insurance broker Lycetts, has urged that clamps are checked so that they are not leaching pollutants into the ground. This is because effluent from the silage clamps which gets into waterways can have a devastating impact on fish, wildlife and ecosystems. In fact, it could be up to 200 times more toxic than untreated sewage.

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Mr Foster stated: “Silage effluent is extraordinarily toxic — so the damage it can cause to watercourse eco-systems is profound. Once the effluent is in the ground and reaches a watercourse, it is very difficult to contain and it can find its way into springs, wells and boreholes and public water supplies, which will require immediate action by an Environment Agency-approved contractor.

“Farmers must therefore make every effort to ensure their clamps are well maintained, and that includes all pipes and tanks as well.”

To help, this article will outline the rules which have to be taken into account by any farmers using silage, as well as acknowledge who is responsible and when the Environment Agency should be notified about certain procedures…

Making and storing silage

When you make and store silage on a farm, there are specific rules that you’ll need to follow — though take note that these rules will not apply when you are just storing silage temporarily in a container or trailer for transportation purposes.

If you are looking to house silage at your farm on a permanent basis though, it is vital that you do not either make or store any of it within ten metres of any coastal or inland water source. Baled silage also shouldn’t be unwrapped within this perimeter, with this type of silage required to be sealed in an impermeable membrane or bagged too.

Will you be handling field silage? In this instance, it is a requirement that you refrain from storing it within 50 metres of a protected water supply source — i.e. a location where water is taken with the purpose of human food preparation, human consumption and/or use within farm dairies. When silage is stored as field silage, there mustn’t be any construction works either and it’s important that topsoil is not disturbed at any point of the process.

Any silos which you use as part of the process of making and storing silage must also be resistant to attack. Therefore, each one should have an impermeable base which extends beyond any of its walls. This base is also required to comply with British Standard 8007:1987 and British Standard 8110-1:1997 regulations if made from concrete, or British Standard 594/EN 13108-4:2006 if a hot-rolled asphalt design.

Impermeable draining collection channels must be found outside of the silo too, with these flowing into an effluent tank. This ties into another important point, in that each silo must have an effluent collection system, though it is fine to store both silage effluent and slurry together should your tank have enough capacity and have been constructed in a manner to withstand both types of effluent. Just take note that gases, which are lethal to both humans and livestock, can result from mixing slurry, so silage effluent should never be placed into an under-floor slurry store.

Where the Environment Agency comes in

There will likely be numerous times when you’ll communicate with the Environment Agency when making or storing silage. In fact, the organisation must be notified at least 14 days ahead of you building a new storage facility for silage, slurry or agricultural fuel oil. The same timeframe must be followed should you make substantial changes to an existing store of silage, too.

You can find details for your local Environment Agency office on the GOV.UK website, though have the following information to hand when contacting them:

• Your name, current address, phone number and email address.
• The type of storage facility that you’re intending to create or alter.
• The specific location of the intended storage facility — provided via an 8-figure grid reference.

Another time when you may have correspondence with someone from the Environment Agency is when they serve a notice that requests you to refrain from using an unsuitable silage, slurry or agricultural fuel oil storage facility until it’s either been relocated or the design improved. This will occur when the organisation is concerned that the storage facility is posing a significant risk of pollution, though the farmer receiving the notice will have at least 28 days to carry out the necessary work — more time may sometimes be granted too, such as if planning permission needs to be sought out or the weather is unsuitable for work to be carried out at the time a notice is delivered.

If you receive a notice and disagree with its demand, you will have 28 days from the day after the notice was served to make an appeal. This appeal must contain a copy of the notice you’ve been sent, all related correspondence and a plan of the farm concerned in the notice — complete with the installation as well as all watercourses and drains. It must also be made in writing to the Secretary of State via the below address, with a copy sent to the Environment Agency office detailed on the notice too:

The Secretary of State for the Environment and Rural Affairs

The Planning Inspectorate

Room 4/19 Eagle Wing

Temple Quay House

2 The Square

Temple Quay

Bristol BS1 6PN

Once you have made your appeal, one of the following three decisions will be made in due course:

1. The notice will be altered or withdrawn.
2. The notice will be upheld, though extra time will be provided for you to comply.
3. The notice will be upheld, though you’ll be provided with no extra time to comply. Instead, the compliance period will often end on the day the decision is made.

With a farmer fined thousands of pounds by the Environment Agency in 2017 for polluting a protected watercourse due to failing to store silage correctly, it is vital that farmers follow the rules in place. As Mr Foster points out: “Farmers have many HSE and Environment Agency standards to comply with and must keep ahead of the game to avoid these fines which remain uninsured. It will not only allow them to rest easy in the knowledge they are fully compliant with working practices and not polluting the environment, but they won’t suffer an unexpected financial hit if things go wrong.”