Country air is what people affectionately call it when the farmer spreads the manure and a strong smell blows into the house or hits the car when driving overland. However, every year on November 1st, the time for fertilizing the grassland with their own manure, as the farmer calls the liquid manure, ends. This is what the Fertilizer Ordinance provides, which applies throughout the Federal Republic. But things are different in the Ravensburg district: farmers there are allowed to spread the manure for two weeks longer. It doesn’t end until November 15th. This is what the Ravensburg district office ordered and announced this week.
“There are definitely questionable points in the fertilizer regulation, but the measure to take regional differences into account makes perfect sense,” says Franz Schönberger, the district chairman of the Allgäu-Upper Swabia farmers’ association. The regulation allows districts to respond to regional differences. And this also happened in the Ravensburg district – following a collective application from agriculture, as Schönberger explains.
The climate has an influence
And there is a reason for that. Because agriculture is extremely dependent on the weather, which influences the work. “We have had an extremely wet year this year and the farmer cannot cut until later. “In addition, there is still some growth on the grassland in winter,” explains Schönberger. And this requires nutrients that come from the manure. At the same time, there is a tendency for very wet winters and the ground to be passable later in the spring. That’s why postponing the blocking period makes perfect sense.
When Schönberger speaks of the Ravensburg district, he likes to use the synonym “the cowshed of Baden-Württemberg” because so many cows are kept in this area. In addition, around 70 percent of agricultural land is grassland. About 18 percent is farmed organically.
He also explains why fertilization is so important: To produce milk, cows need a lot of protein, which they get from food. And the plants the animals eat need nitrogen to grow. It is an important cycle that both animals and farmers rely on. At the same time, it is better for the farmer to buy his own manure than mineral fertilizer and distribute it on the fields.
What the lockdown period means for the new year
The fact that the blocking period for manure spreading has been pushed back by two weeks does not only mean that the farmer can drive over the fields with the manure tank for two weeks longer. He won’t be allowed to start again until two weeks later next year. Instead of February 1st, the deadline is now February 14th.
The press release from the district office states: “Areas within problem and renovation areas in water protection areas, as well as nitrate areas in accordance with the state government’s regulation on requirements for fertilization in certain areas to protect water from contamination (VODüV areas), are excluded from the closure time shift. According to mapping by the Baden-Württemberg State Environmental Agency, moorland areas (moorland and fenland) are also exempt from the closure time shift.”
The general order as well as the associated justification and further information can be found on the Homepage of the Ravensburg District Office under the “Public Announcements” section can be viewed.
