Farm business fined £20,000 for slurry run-off incident

A Somerset farmer and his farm business are facing fines and costs of more than £20,000 following a slurry pollution incident in 2022.

Yeovil Magistrates Court has heard how over 1.5km of watercourses were impacted following the spreading of slurry by farmer Ben Hembrow on a field of winter wheat on his Stoke St Gregory farm.

See also: Find our slurry management advice in one place 

The Environment Agency (EA) was alerted to a report of slurry running down a road and into a drain. On arrival, an EA officer found fields saturated in slurry and observed slurry entering nearby watercourses and ditches.

Mr Hambrow attended the scene and attempted to reduce the impact by blocking a ditch and used subsoiling equipment to break up the soil surface to prevent further run-off.

During an interview, Mr Hembrow also claimed that the weather app he used had predicted only 1mm of rain for the day after the slurry was applied.

But this was dismissed by the EA, which said heavy rain had been forecast to fall on the day in question by numerous weather forecasters.

No checks on the physical condition of the soil had been made, it added, and no soil test pits dug to assess soil structure.

Basic checks

David Womack, senior environment officer for the EA, said Mr Hembrow had failed to carry out the most basic checks.

“Previous land management had led to the fields being compacted – anything spread on the soil was therefore likely to run off.

“He also wrongly assumed risk assessments for slurry application would be done by his agronomist, but it was his responsibility to do this just prior to the slurry being applied.”

In summary, District Judge Brereton acknowledged Mr Hembrow to be a hard-working farmer committed to modern technology and farming practices, but said the standards of farming had fallen well below what is expected.

Having admitted to the charges, Mr Hembrow was fined £525 for failing to plan the slurry applications, while his business, Huntham Farm Ltd, was fined £8,000 for causing pollution and ordered to pay the agency’s full costs of £11,564.