Carrying and storing diesel and petrol on a farm, and the container that suits the field.
A farm runs on diesel carried to machinery across the yard and the field. The container has to survive that, hold the fuel cleanly, and meet the storage rules that apply to on-farm fuel.
Quick answer: What are the rules for storing fuel on a farm in England?
In England, the Silage, Slurry and Agricultural Fuel Oil Regulations 2010 apply once a farm stores over 1,500 litres of fuel oil in total, counting cans, drums and tanks together. Its store then needs a bund of 110 per cent of the largest tank, or 25 per cent of the total where several tanks share it, whichever is greater.
For refuelling tractors, pumps and machinery away from a bulk tank, a rugged steel jerry can or a horizontal can that stows on a machine fits. Steel takes the knocks of field use, and a galvanized body resists the wash-down and the weather. A tap or spout turns a two-hand pour into controlled dispensing at the machine. An upright can sits in a rack for carrying between jobs, while a horizontal can bolts flat against a tractor or implement frame and stays put over rough ground. Reach for a 20L agricultural fuel can when you want a size one person can lift and pour without wrestling a funnel. Diesel spilled on a hot manifold can catch fire, so a spout that keeps the pour on target matters.
Dirt and water are diesel's real enemies. A modern engine meters fuel through fine injectors and filters, and grit or moisture blocks them, so a dirty can costs you a workshop bill rather than a wipe-down. Keep the can clean inside, seal it after every fill, and store it so any water and sediment settle to the bottom instead of swilling into the tank. Draw from the top, not the dregs.
The tolerance for dirt has fallen sharply and most operators have not noticed. A modern common-rail injector meters fuel through clearances measured in single micrometres at pressures above 2,000 bar, so a particle far too small to see will score a plunger or hold an injector open. That is why an older tractor tolerated a scruffy can and a new one does not: the machine changed, the practice did not, and the failure lands as a rebuild rather than a filter change.
Water compounds it in three ways. It corrodes the injection components directly, it strips the lubricity diesel provides to the parts it passes through, and at the fuel-water interface it feeds the microbial growth described below. A can with a centimetre of water in the bottom is therefore worse than a can with the same volume of grit. A settling period before you pour is worth more than any amount of wiping the outside.
Diesel does not spoil on a farm the way petrol does. It is contaminated, and almost always by water, which arrives through condensation in a part-full tank, a leaking fill cap or a breather drawing humid air as the tank cools overnight.
Water settles beneath the fuel, and the interface between the two is where microbial growth lives: it needs the water to survive and the fuel as food. The colonies produce a dark sludge that blocks filters, and their by-products are acidic enough to corrode tank and injection components from the inside.
The remedies therefore all target water. Keep tanks full to reduce the air space that condenses, and fit and maintain a water-separating filter. Drain the sump on a schedule rather than when a problem appears, and treat a biocide as a response to a confirmed problem rather than routine insurance.
Diesel keeps up to about a year in clean, dry storage, longer if kept cool and treated, so on-farm stock rotates rather than sits indefinitely. Keep cans sealed and labelled, and read storing fuel safely for shelf life and stabilisers.
Cold is the other seasonal variable, and it has a specification behind it. Diesel contains paraffin waxes that crystallise as the temperature drops, and the crystals block a filter long before the fuel stops flowing. The measure is the cold filter plugging point, and EN 590 sets seasonal grades so that winter diesel plugs at a lower temperature than summer diesel. Fuel bought in August and carried into a February morning is summer grade whatever the pump said, which is one more argument for rotating on-farm stock rather than holding it.
Rotation also has a practical shape on a farm that a household reserve does not. Cans go out to machines and come back part-full, and a part-full can is the one that condenses water overnight. The habit that works is to run cans down and refill them rather than topping them up, and to keep a small number in circulation rather than a large number half-used.
Run a separate, labelled can for each liquid. Diesel goes in one, petrol for two-stroke and small engines in another, and DEF or AdBlue in a third. DEF must never meet diesel: a splash of it in your fuel corrodes the injection system, and a splash of diesel in your DEF ruins the dose. Colour-code the cans, mark each one, and never let the petrol can double as the diesel can. See DEF and AdBlue container requirements.
Dedication is cheaper than it looks once the failure is priced. A spare can costs less than an hour of workshop time, and a DEF-into-diesel or diesel-into-DEF event costs an injection system or an emissions module. The economics are lopsided enough that the only reason cans get shared is that nobody has done the sum, which is why it is worth doing once in front of whoever buys them.
A farm often runs a bulk tank in the yard and cans to carry fuel to the field, decanting through a tap or an adapter. Match the format to the volume, as in jerry can, drum or IBC.
Transfer is where farm fuel gets dirty. A bulk tank settles water and sediment to its bottom, so drawing from a low outlet fills cans with exactly what the tank spent a month separating out. Draw from above the sump, drain the sump on a schedule rather than when a problem appears, and keep the adapter and tap dedicated to one liquid so nothing arrives from the last job.
On-farm fuel storage is regulated in many countries, with rules on quantity, container type, marking and secondary containment. Once you hold more than a modest quantity, expect to provide a bund or drip tray that catches the fuel if a can or tank fails, sited clear of drains and watercourses. Confirm your local agricultural fuel-storage rules, see spill containment, and size the bund with the spill pallet calculator.
In England, farm fuel sits outside the Control of Pollution (Oil Storage) (England) Regulations 2001, which exclude oil used in agriculture, and falls instead under the Water Resources (Control of Pollution) (Silage, Slurry and Agricultural Fuel Oil) (England) Regulations 2010. Those apply once the total fuel oil stored on the farm exceeds 1,500 litres. They then require a bund of 110 per cent of the largest tank, or 25 per cent of the total where several tanks share it, whichever is greater. Drums with no tank in the area need 25 per cent of what is stored. A 1,300-litre tank plus a dozen 20-litre cans already crosses it, so the rule covers more farms than its reputation suggests.
Two details decide whether a particular farm is caught. The 1,500-litre test counts the total fuel oil stored on the farm, so the cans, the drums and the tank add up rather than being assessed one by one. And temporary storage in a tanker used to move fuel on the road or about the farm is excluded, so the question for a mobile bowser is whether it is moving fuel or storing it. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own equivalent instruments.
Fuel duty is a separate regime and it moved recently. From 1 April 2022 the UK restricted rebated red diesel to a defined list of qualifying uses, and agriculture, horticulture, fish farming and forestry retained their entitlement while much of the work at the edge of farming lost it. Contracting outside those defined activities is the place operators get caught, and it is worth checking the actual use rather than assuming the sector answer covers everything the machine does.
The one that bites is the unlabelled, dirty can. Someone fills a scuffed can from whatever tank is nearest, the marking has worn off, and by next season nobody knows if it holds diesel, petrol or DEF. Cross-contaminate DEF and diesel that way and you can write off an injection system. Clean cans, clear labels and one liquid per can cost nothing and head off the expensive version of this.
The version that survives a busy season is a system rather than a habit. Buy cans in the colours the site will use and mark them at the point they enter service. Keep a spare of each so nobody is forced to improvise, and retire a can whose marking has worn off rather than re-labelling it from memory.
Our steel fuel and horizontal ranges suit agricultural refuelling. Tell us the fuel and the machinery and we specify the can. See the fuel range.
One liquid per can, clean and labelled. We make five products for this job.
| Your use case | Recommended can | Why this one |
|---|---|---|
| Diesel out to the machine |  20L Horizontal Agricultural Fuel Can |
A size one person lifts and pours in the field. |
| Fuel mounted on an implement frame |  Horizontal Galvanised Can — 5L / 10L / 20L |
Bolts flat and stays put over rough ground. |
| Decanting at the yard |  20L Steel Fuel Tank with Spout |
Stands and pours through a tap from a bulk tank. |
| DEF / AdBlue, kept apart from diesel |  DEF Can — Diesel Exhaust Fluid |
A dedicated container so the two never mix. |
| Drawing from a drum or IBC |  Drum & IBC Adapters |
Adapters to fill cans cleanly from bulk. |
In a bunded tank for bulk, decanted into clean portable cans for field use. The dominant failure is water ingress leading to microbial growth, the diesel bug, which blocks filters and damages injection systems. Keep containers full, sealed and drained of water at the sump.
Small quantities in approved containers are generally permitted, with exemption thresholds and marking rules that vary by country. Above the threshold it becomes a regulated dangerous goods movement with driver and vehicle requirements. Check the national threshold rather than assuming farm use is exempt.
A can with a dispensing tap or a long flexible spout, sized to one machine fill, in a material matched to the fuel. Weight matters more than capacity here, because the can is lifted repeatedly across uneven ground rather than carried once.
It depends on the country. In Britain a bowser is a tanker or mobile tank of fuel, such as the one that takes diesel to machinery on a farm. In Australia and New Zealand it is the petrol pump at a filling station. The spelling is bowser. The word began as a US trade name, taken from the inventor S. F. Bowser.
It is a mobile fuel tank with a bund, an outer case that holds the tank and catches a leak. Makers build the bund into the bowser. England’s business oil rules ask for secondary containment of 110% of the container’s capacity, so a 1,000 litre bowser needs 1,100 litres; the 25% drip tray route is for drums only. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland set the same figure in their own rules, and farms in England holding over 1,500 litres of fuel oil follow separate farm rules.
Yes, within the dangerous goods rules. In Great Britain, HSE guidance takes an agricultural or forestry tractor outside the main rules while it travels at 40 km/h or less, and any trailer it tows. A van or 4x4 does not count as a tractor, so a tank bowser behind one follows ADR. The towing vehicle should then meet the AT or FL standard, unless the bowser is a certified IBC.
A fuel bowser is a mobile tank that stores fuel and dispenses it, built to be moved between locations. On a farm it takes diesel out to machinery working away from the yard tank. Under the English farm fuel rules, temporary storage in a tanker used to move fuel on the road or about the farm is excluded. A bowser therefore counts towards the 1,500-litre total when it is storing fuel and not while it is moving it.
It damages the injection system. DEF is a water-based urea solution that does not burn, and a splash of it in diesel corrodes injection components, while the water strips the lubricity the fuel gives the pump and injectors. The bill runs to an injection system rather than a filter. Keep DEF in its own blue-capped can, store it out of reach of the diesel nozzle, and never let one can serve both liquids.
Diesel gels before it freezes. As it cools, the paraffin waxes in it crystallise, and the crystals block a fuel filter long before the fuel stops flowing. The measure is the cold filter plugging point, and EN 590 sets seasonal grades so that winter diesel plugs at a lower temperature than summer diesel. Fuel bought in August and carried into February is still summer grade, so rotate on-farm stock instead of holding it.
The standards and regulations this page relies on, at their issuing body. Where a market rule is named here, check the current revision before you specify against it.
Last reviewed by Clarence Cheang, Co-Founder.
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