The Environmentally Sensitive Areas (Somerset Levels and Moors) Designation Order 1992

Article 6(2)

SCHEDULE 4 ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS—III

As regards any land which is the subject of an agreement–

1.  The farmer shall not carry out any mechanical operations on the land between 31st March and 1st July in any year;

2.  The farmer shall not apply inorganic fertiliser. He shall not apply farmyard manure except manure which has been produced on his farm and shall not apply more than 25 tonnes per hectare per year. He shall not apply slurry.

3.  The farmer shall not graze before 20th May in any year. Thereafter he shall graze only with cattle but he shall not exceed a grazing density of one animal per 0.75 hectares from 20th May until 8th July in any year and in any event he shall not graze the land in such a manner as to cause poaching, overgrazing or undergrazing;

4.  The farmer shall not make silage. Where land has not been used solely for grazing, the farmer shall mow at least one third of the area of land each year (or shall mow the whole of the area during one year in every three years) but shall not do so before 8th July in any year and shall not graze the land before laying it up;

5.  The farmer shall not cut or top the grass after 31st August in any year;

6.  The farmer shall not use herbicides to control creeping buttercup;

7.  The farmer shall maintain water levels in ditches and rhynes at not more than 30 centimetres below mean field level from 1st May until 30th November in any year and shall maintain water levels at mean field level (so as to cause conditions of surface splashing) from 1st December in any year until the following 30th April.