Article 6 Land management

70 % or more of the acreage available for manure application on a cattle farm benefiting from an individual derogation shall be cultivated with crops with high nitrogen uptake and long growing season.

Grass catch crops shall not be ploughed before 1 March in order to ensure permanent vegetal cover of arable area for recovering subsoil autumn losses of nitrates and limit winter losses.

Temporary grasslands shall be ploughed in spring and the ploughing will be followed by a crop with high nitrogen uptake.

Crop rotation shall not include leguminous or other plants fixing atmospheric nitrogen. This will however not apply to clover or alfalfa in grassland with less than 50 % clover or alfalfa and to barley/pea undersown with grass.