Akkerbouwer Cees van Tiggelen from Halsteren is ready for it, with the mowing waste along the ditches on his country: “Those people from the water board, who will not come to me for the time being,” he says firmly. According to him, the new national mowing policy ensures that part of his land becomes unusable. And not only farmers are critical: the Brabantse Delta Water Board is also dissatisfied with the national mowing rules and wants them to be highlighted quickly.
Due to the lagging cuttings, the arable farmer can now no longer edit a wide strip along the ditch, sighs from Tiggelen. “I just lost meters of land and that costs me immediately.”
Since this year, the so -called flail mowing has been forbidden. With that method, a rotating axle with flaps of reeds and grass in small pieces, after which the waste was removed with a mowing bonf. “Then there was much less volume behind it,” Van Tiggelen explains Southwest TV. “Now they are mowing roughly, and then you get a mountain of four to five meters wide along your plot. I can’t get through with my machines. I can’t sow it and that may also lead to problems with my subsidies.”
Unworkable
According to Van Tiggelen, several farmers in the region have the same problems. “It sounds great for biodiversity, but in practice this is unworkable. We lose agricultural land, and in the meantime you can see that municipal roads are simply still bragging.”
Water Board recognizes problems
Complaints from several land users have arrived at the Brabantse Delta Water Board in Breda. Acting Dijkgraaf Rian Govers-Gabriels explains: “It is true that the new mowing leads to discomfort, not only with farmers but also with ourselves and the contractors that perform it. The mower remains on the banks, sometimes sinks back into the water and can ensure blockages and disruptions. The balance between nature-friendly management and versionability is now.”
National code of conduct
De Dijkgraaf emphasizes that the new mowing policy comes from a national code of conduct, prepared by the Union of Water Boards. This means that biodiversity wants to better protect by mowing ditches in phases and not removing everything in one go.
Evaluation this year
The code of conduct applies five years, but will be evaluated at the end of this year. Dijkgraaf Govers: “We hear many signals from the field and take them seriously in the national discussion. Only together we can ensure a way of mowing that is nature -friendly, safe and practically executable.”
What is clapper mowing?
Mowing is a mowing method in which an axle with metal flaps rotates rapidly and the grass or reeds hits small pieces. The result: short, finely beaten vegetation that can be easily removed. For farmers, this meant that relatively little cuttings were left on the banks.
However, the method is under discussion, because insects, small animals and plants are also being hurled. That is why clay mowing has been prohibited since this year in the maintenance of ditches and waterways by water boards. Instead, the crop is coarsely mowed and laid in larger pieces, so that Flora and Fauna are more likely to have a more chance.