When you can spread slurry or milk on agricultural land, or store slurry, without meeting normal regulatory requirements due to coronavirus (COVID-19) disruption.

If you landspread slurry or milk produced on a farm you must normally comply with certain regulatory requirements.

More than 1 million litres of milk have been discarded since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, with some milk still struggling to find a home, figures from an industry survey have shown.

Interim data from the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF) survey found the amount of milk discarded between 6 April to 20th April to be a little over 1 million litres, which is in line with the figures produced by AHDB and Dairy UK.

The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF) has submitted vital evidence to the Government highlighting the negative impact restrictions on access to foreign labour could have on UK dairy farms post-2021.

The Association, who has led the issue of foreign labour on dairy farms for almost a decade, put forward their case on Friday (24 April) to the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA) Inquiry into Labour in the Food Supply Chain.

The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF) is urging producers affected by the COVID-19 milk crisis to submit an online daily account of their losses after the Government calls for data on the severity of the issue in the UK.

The Scottish Government has asked Lantra Scotland to set-up and operate a skills matching service to help fill any shortages in the rural and animal welfare workforce in Scotland that may arise during the Covid-19 crisis.

Dairy farmers not registered as a raw drinking milk producer should not give away or sell raw milk straight from the tank, warns the Food Standards Agency.

It is illegal to sell or give away raw milk and cream free of charge if you are not registered to do so.

The warning comes as some dairy farmers may be asked by friends and neighbours if they can buy milk straight from the tank, with some supermarkets still seeing milk shortages on the shelves.

1. Why are farmers having to dispose of milk?

Dairy farmers supply their fresh milk to processors who process or manufacture the milk into usable consumer products or as an ingredient for other products. The processors then sell their products to various outlets such as supermarkets, cafes and hotels.

It is the closure of restaurants, cafes and other catering outlets, known as the food service sector, as a result of Government measures brought in to control Covid19, that has resulted in a reduction in the demand for milk and dairy products.