The Netherlands shows what happens when slurry rules tighten

For decades, pig and chicken manure has been exported from the Netherlands, mainly to arable regions in Germany and France, where there is a demand for more manure

Dairy farmers in the Netherlands have been having to pay arable farmers to take excess manure off them. Last year, that cost was €30 per cubic metre. Picture: Nick Gammon / AFP via Getty Images

As the EU changes its rules, nowhere are farmers under more pressure than in the Netherlands.

Being allowed to spread large amounts of manure from their livestock on their fields helped the relatively small country to become one of the world's largest food exporters.