PART 5MEASURES RELATING TO LAND MANAGEMENT
Cover in winter
17. After harvesting a crop of cereals (other than maize), oil seeds or grain legumes (such as peas or beans) the controller shall ensure that from harvest until 1 March in the following year, one of the following conditions is met on the land at any time:
(a)the stubble of the harvested crop remains in the land; or
(b)the land is sown with a crop which will take up nitrogen from the soil; or
(c)the land is left with a rough surface, ploughed or disced, to encourage the infiltration of rain.
Crop management
18. In having regard to these Regulations, the following principles of crop management shall apply:
(a)residues of crops harvested late, such as maize and potatoes, shall be left undisturbed until immediately prior to sowing the following Spring; and
(b)where grass leys are grown in rotation with arable crops the first crop should be sown as soon as possible after the grass has been ploughed.