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David Graveston at Park House Farm isn’t the only farmer to erect one of these specialist stores: Frank Towers owns Curwen Hill farm in Wray. Curwen Hill farm is an intensive beef and sheep farm on 400 acres of mainly grassland but also with 60 acres given over to wheat production for animal feed. 400 cattle are housed on straw all year round with the resulting manure previously creating an enormous midden.
Although perfectly legal these middens are a potential source for water pollution. The Water Code notes, “Heaped stores can make a lot of liquid waste if stored outside. This liquid has a high biochemical oxygen demand and there is a high risk of it causing pollution”. With an annual rainfall of 1182mm in the Gisburn area the midden will create a large amount of dirty water each year containing leachate. The Policy Commission on Food and Farming (January 2002) noted, agriculture is now a major polluter of water and that over 70% of nitrates and 40% of phosphates in English waters originate from agricultural land.
Frank has purchased a covered midden to reduce the potential threat of water pollution on his farm.
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