Your Gloucestershire county NFU update

Katie Davies

NFU County Adviser (Wiltshire and Gloucestershire)

September has seen your group secretaries drafting branch local plans for the year ahead.

As always, if you have any thoughts or ideas for events please let me know.

We recently held a Bluetongue meeting in Cirencester, where the overwhelming reminder is to vaccinate and if you haven't, ensure your name is on the list for a vaccine.

Please see NFU Online for more information about bluetongue.

September also sees Hattie Severinsen returning from maternity leave, whom we warmly welcome back.

That means this is my final county page update. I just wanted to thank you all for the warm welcome and support over the past year.

It really has been a pleasure to work alongside the fantastic Gloucestershire officeholders, management team, group secretaries and the wider membership. Thank you all.

Local news

Severn Trent funding opens for farmers

STEPS (Severn Trent's Environmental Protection Scheme) is part of Severn Trent Water's Farming for Water catchment management programme. STEPS provides practical funding and expert advice to help farmers make improvements that work for their farms and support local water quality. STEPS is designed to help farmers identify the right action for the right farm. Like STEPS 2025, STEPS 2026 is based around 6 core objectives, all of which are designed to support the farm and benefit water quality.

The deadline for applications is 11 December 2026.

You can find out more here.

Local news

Slurry Store Construction Guidance

The Environment Agency has released a video for farmers and contractors on slurry store construction and SSAFO regulations. It explains slurry and silage storage management, the benefits of getting it right, and how to stay compliant. Please click below to watch the video.

For more information:

Farming Rules for Water: Guidance on Farming Rules for Water – NFUonline

SSAFO Regulations: Silage, Slurry and Agricultural Fuel Oil storage – what you need to know – NFUonline

Watch the video

Local news

Rodent Management Training

As you are hopefully now aware, the rules for using rodenticides are changing and unless you have taken the Rodent Management Course and have the certificate from an approved provider, you will no longer be able to purchase rodenticides from 1 January 2026.

NFU has worked with Lantra so that we can provide this exam to our members at a discounted price of £95 + VAT.

If you would like to take this exam with NFU, please register your interest and we will look to run another session soon.

Local news

CPRE Gloucestershire Hedgerows Heroes Project

The CPRE are currently in the process of looking for land for hedgerow laying and planting and individuals who would be happy to host their sessions.

For planting, they would be looking for land that is clear and accessible (mowed or unplanted) that they can plant a new hedge into, or gaps within existing hedges that they can fill. They generally aim to do approximately 100m in a planting day, but this is dependent of the number of volunteers present. If you have more than 100m, then CPRE could organise multiple days throughout the season to continue the work.

For laying, the land criteria has a few more requirements. In specific, it requires an existing hedge that has at least 2 plant species present and, is less than 14ft tall with stems that are not too thick, so that they can be easily moved by the volunteers.

If you have any questions or would like to get in touch about participating in the project, please contact Eve from CPRE at [email protected].