The Environment Agencys (EA) chief executive has been accused of misleading MPs on the effective ban on autumn muck spreading, which was introduced to improve water quality.
Sir James Bevan wrote to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee to clarify the agencys position, after chair Neil Parish complained about the potential impact on farmers and the wider environment.
Agricultural groups had raised serious concerns about the EAs abrupt change in interpretation of the Farming Rules for Water, which have been in place since 2018.
Giving evidence to the Efra committee in January, Tenant Farmers Association chief executive George Dunn said: I do seriously believe the letter you received from Sir James Bevan was misleading in terms of the agencys position.
It says there is no routine banning, but then it goes on to define what it means by the application of organic manures and it defines them in a way which is not in our mind an organic manure.
Mr Dunn went on to say the agency was now looking to lift the ban, after interventions from Farming Minister Victoria Prentis and the Efra committee, but warned the whole episode had been a communications disaster.
He added: What we need to achieve, very early doors, is new communication out to the farming community to ensure we are ready and able to apply manures this coming autumn within a framework which ensures we are not at significant risk of pollution.
Andrew Neal, a soil microbiologist from Rothamsted Research, who was also giving evidence to the committee, said applying manure in autumn under the right conditions would actually lead to less run-off and leaching.
He claimed the EAs position had been based on AHDB advice not to spread at this time of year for economic, not environmental reasons.
Mr Neal said: There is tension here between what the Environmental Land Management scheme is trying to achieve and what the agency is having to make decisions about.
If we are going to reward farmers for doing the right thing, and one of those requirements is to sequester carbon in soils, that is where the tension comes.
This could prevent farmers who want to do the right things from being able to do it.
