Countryside Stewardship Guide
In light of the UK’s exit from the EU and the subsequent phase out of BPS, we now focus our attention away from EU based rules, through the agricultural transition, towards those of each individual nation, and their approach to environmental stewardship. Farmers and land owners will be rewarded for protecting and enhancing the environment and its biodiversity whilst maintaining sustainable agricultural production.
The UK Government will continue to offer Countryside Stewardship agreements in 2022 and 2023.
Countryside Stewardship will eventually be replaced with the new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme. This will follow trialling and testing and a national pilot involving farmers and land managers during the next few years.
The full ELM scheme should be in place from 2024. Signing up to a Countryside Stewardship agreement will put you in a great position to join ELM. Joining an environmental scheme will give you a viable, long-term source of income for providing environmental benefits just as the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments start to reduce.
- Higher Tier is for land that requires more complex management tailored to the individual sites
- Mid Tier provides a range of options and capital items that together help to deliver a broad range of environmental benefits. Within the Mid Tier you can choose from.
Wild Pollinator and Farm Wildlife Package (WPFWP)
This package groups management options together. This will help you to provide farmland wildlife with the essential resources they need to thrive and breed successfully. WPFWP includes packages for arable, pastoral, and mixed farms.
The Wildlife Offers
Provide a simpler set of options to help improve the wildlife on your farm by improving habitats for pollinators, farmland birds and other wildlife.
Read our guide to growing Wildflowers, here.
The wildlife offers
Four Countryside Stewardship Scheme offers have been introduced for farmers and land managers. Significant improvements have been made to the scheme to make it simpler and easier for farmers and land managers to apply.
The four new offers are;
- Arable
- Lowland Grazing
- Upland
- Mixed Farming
The Mixed Farming option will provide tailored options covering the full range of different farm types, so farmers and land managers can deliver environmental benefits no matter where they are or what they farm.
The paperwork for the new offers is quicker and easier to get through. This is down to more streamlined evidence checks and shorter application forms, designed to help save farmers valuable time.
The scheme is also non-competitive, meaning that all farmers who meet the eligibility requirements can get an agreement to deliver a minimum of 3 options, depending on the offer you have selected.
Further details are available, visit www.gov.uk/countrysidestewardship.
Wales
Glastir will remain in place with contracts extended until the end 2023. We will then see the transition to the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS), which is expected to launch in 2025. Over the next 3 years funding is in place to support farmers and landowners continue to focus on sustainable food production, whilst helping to improve environmental biodiversity, alongside encouraging greater resilience of farming businesses during the transition between policies. This will be delivered through schemes, such as Growing For The Environment.
The Growing for the Environment grant is open to all eligible farmers in Wales and comprises of 9 eligible crop groups with grant values ranging from £85 to £302 per hectare.
- Mixed leys
- Red clover or Lucerne
- Protein crops (No weed control)
- Unsprayed root or forage crop
- Unsprayed spring sown cereals
- Unsprayed spring cereals under sown with mixed ley
- Unsprayed cereal and protein crop mix
- Unsprayed cereal and protein crop under sown with mixed ley
- Under sowing maize (spring / summer sown)
If you have been accepted onto the scheme, we can support you in selecting the right mix for your needs. Within our grass seed range, we have mixtures available which are compliant with all scheme requirements, from herbal leys, pea and barley mixes, red clover leys, root seeds and mixtures for under sowing maize.
Scotland
The Agri-Environment Climate Scheme promotes land management practices that protect and enhance Scotland’s natural heritage, improve water quality and manage flood risk. The Agri-Environment Climate Scheme has been extended and will have an annual application round until 2024.
The scheme includes a wide range of options for arable farmers:
- Unharvested conservation headlands
- Wild bird seed for farmland birds
- Forage brassica crops for farmland birds
- Stubbles followed by green manure
- Retention of winter stubbles
- Beetle banks
- Grass strips in arable fields
Further details can be found on the Scottish rural payment’s website www.ruralpayments.org.
Championing the Farmed Environment (CFE) is encouraging farmers and land managers across England to protect and enhance the environmental value of farmland by taking up voluntary measures. CFE will help you choose the best measure, select the right site and manage the area to maximise the environmental value. You can learn more about the campaign by visiting their website www.cfeonline.org.uk
Request a copy of the Conservation and Game Cover Crops guide
Creating the perfect habitat is vitally important and will enable future generations to know that we played our part in securing our wildlife and plant populations.
The start of this process begins by investing in the right seeds mixture that will allow you to deliver environmental benefits to the highest level.
