Agricultural Inspections and Cross-Compliance

All farms are required to comply with certain environmental, animal welfare, and safety standards. These include:

GAB – Basic Requirements for Farm Management
. These include, among other things, the protection of water, nature, and the landscape, as well as specific regulations governing the use of plant protection products and minimum requirements for the protection of calves, pigs, and other farm animals.

GAB 1: Water
GAB 2: Water
GAB 3: Biodiversity and Landscape (Protection and Quality) VSG (Bird Protection Area)
GAB 4: Biodiversity and Landscape (Protection and Quality) FFH (Flora-Fauna-Habitat)
GAB 5: Food Safety
GAB 6: Food Safety
GAB 7: Plant Protection Products
GAB 8: Plant Protection Products
GAB 9: Animal Welfare: Minimum Requirements for the Protection of Calves
GAB 10: Animal Welfare: Minimum Requirements for the Protection of Pigs
GAB 11: Animal Welfare: On the Protection of Farm Animals

GLÖZ – Standards for Maintaining Land in Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition

This means, among other things, that permanent grassland must be preserved, wetlands and bogs must be protected, stubble fields must not be banned, and crop rotation must be practiced.

GAEC 1: Preservation of permanent grassland
GAEC 2: Minimum protection of wetlands and peatlands
GAEC 3: Prohibition on burning stubble fields
GAEC 4: Buffer strips along watercourses
GAEC 5: Erosion
GAEC 6: Minimum ground cover during sensitive periods (Nov. 15 – Jan. 15 of the following year) for 80% of the land (20% of the land may remain uncovered, for example, to take advantage of “frost tillage”)
GAEC 7: Crop rotation (suspended in 2023)
GAEC 8: Minimum proportion of agricultural land designated for non-productive areas or landscape features
GAEC 9: Environmentally sensitive permanent grassland in FFH areas