Straw and stubble burning

Straw and stubble burning presents a fire risk to:

  • farm buildings, crops and machinery
  • the countryside – burning can damage hedgerows and trees and disturb or kill wildlife
  • the public – smoke can cause nuisance to nearby houses and businesses and be a hazard to road traffic.

Burning straw and stubble deprives the soil of valuable organic material. It also releases greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

    What you must do

    In England and Wales you must not burn cereal straw or cereal stubble. There are only a few exemptions to this ban. Contact your local council for more information.

    In Northern Ireland burning straw or stubble in the open on the farm is strongly discouraged. If you have no other alternative then you will be allowed to burn if you have registered an exemption with the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), and follow the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) guidelines.

    In Scotland you may burn stubble and straw. But burning is strongly discouraged by the environmental regulators.

    Even if straw and stubble burning is allowed you must not emit dark smoke. Dark smoke is finely divided particles of matter suspended in the air as a visible cloud.

    Good practice

    You should bale and cart straw from fields or chop the straw and plough it into the soil before establishing the next crop.

    If burning of stubble and straw is permitted, you should consult the codes of good agricultural practice for more information on how to safely burn crop residues.

    In England and Wales, see section 18 of the Defra Air Code.

    In Northern Ireland, see section 11.2 of the DARD code of good agricultural practice for water, air and soil. 

    In Scotland, see section 13.26 of the Prevention of Environmental Pollution from Agricultural Activity (PEPFAA) Code.