Moving from CS agreement to SFI .

[Ceri]

We are in exactly the same situation, felt it was best/only option this time last year but now feel stitched up, HLS payments haven’t increased since we joined in 2010

Agreed…. And let’s face it I’d like to manage our farm a bit differently now than how we did 11yrs ago when we built it around the start of our old HLS, - things move on (as they should) but I kind of feel shackled for another 4 years……

 

[nonemouse]

We are in exactly the same situation, felt it was best/only option this time last year but now feel stitched up, HLS payments haven’t increased since we joined in 2010

We are in same situation too, Hls since 2009, only given days to accept a 5yr renewal, (after a number of 1 yr renewals) we had to sign up last feb even though our renewal, didn’t start till September so we still got 4yrs 7 months still to run on our Els/hls

 

[Stw88]

If they just upper the payment rates to match the new cs rates i would have no issues with sticking how we are for another 4 years but there is just too much of a gap.

 

[Ceri]

They’ve also said payment rates for HLS won’t be increased like the other schemes as it’s being phased out, so I’m going to miss out for 5 years!

Don’t worry there’s currently an underspend in the ag budget & an election coming up - nothing would suprise me if a month before we go to the polls they suddenly announce an increase in HLS rates to rid some of it & get some more fergs back on side…. and let’s face it politicians will do anything to stay in power….??
Or it’s just my wishful thinking…….

 

[EJS]

Don’t worry there’s currently an underspend in the ag budget & an election coming up - nothing would suprise me if a month before we go to the polls they suddenly announce an increase in HLS rates to rid some of it & get some more fergs back on side…. and let’s face it politicians will do anything to stay in power….??
Or it’s just my wishful thinking…….

I hope you are right but think they already count us as in elms and as aim is 70% farmers - they are going to up other rates to induce others into new schemes knowing HLS farmers are trapped anyway I do hooe I'm wrong- having meeting with NE advisor soon regarding this.

 

[livestock 1]

I’m in the same situation. I have extended the Hls agreements on the basis at that time I was told there would be options that would stack but it would appear the only sfi options available are not able to be stacked with sfi. So after being pleased I managed to get extensions for hls I’m now going to have to do something not sure what exactly. We have mainly rough grazing

 

[ploughman1963]

We are in same situation too, Hls since 2009, only given days to accept a 5yr renewal, (after a number of 1 yr renewals) we had to sign up last feb even though our renewal, didn’t start till September so we still got 4yrs 7 months still to run on our Els/hls

A farm I am involved in was in a similar position but on the basis that whilst we had signed up for 5 year extension, we had not yet received a payment and successfully got out of the HLS/ELS agreement and have recently entered an SFI agreement - many, many pennies better off!!

 

[gone up the hill]

Don’t worry there’s currently an underspend in the ag budget & an election coming up - nothing would suprise me if a month before we go to the polls they suddenly announce an increase in HLS rates to rid some of it & get some more fergs back on side…. and let’s face it politicians will do anything to stay in power….??
Or it’s just my wishful thinking…….

Of course there is a an underspend as for one they have only paid about 60% of CS payments due nearly 2 months after the payment window opened and for 2 they have cut the BPS hard the last two years but only now just getting going with the SFI scheme!

 

[aangus]

Of course there is a an underspend as for one they have only paid about 60% of CS payments due nearly 2 months after the payment window opened and for 2 they have cut the BPS hard the last two years but only now just getting going with the SFI scheme!

There won't be much monies left when everyone signs up to these herbal lays

 

[warksfarmer]

I had a conversation with some agents last week who said that in their experience it was difficult, RPA wanted to see a significant increase in the scheme to consider it

Just come out of a CS and had an SFI accepted that was significantly less than the CS in terms of what we are doing.

 

[barnfield]

Just come out of a CS and had an SFI accepted that was significantly less than the CS in terms of what we are doing.

You were allowed to leave a CS early?

 

[warksfarmer]

You were allowed to leave a CS early?

Only a 2 month cross over but I didn't accept it anyway.

 

[onthehoof]

I hope you are right but think they already count us as in elms and as aim is 70% farmers - they are going to up other rates to induce others into new schemes knowing HLS farmers are trapped anyway I do hooe I'm wrong- having meeting with NE advisor soon regarding this.

Keep us posted

 

[T Hectares]

Just come out of a CS and had an SFI accepted that was significantly less than the CS in terms of what we are doing.

How much time was left on the CS agreement??
I did amalgamate two CS agreements two years ago and we did get there after quite a lot of work !!

 

[YorkshireAndrew]

I spoke with our agent today who is submitting our sfi application , he had been on a Zoom meeting yesterday with fellow agents & confirmed that it wasn’t possible to move from mid tier to sfi , this situation seems to have been a fudge from day one .

 

[warksfarmer]

How much time was left on the CS agreement??
I did amalgamate two CS agreements two years ago and we did get there after quite a lot of work !!

2-3 months. They might have been more concerned about us not doing anything so made it work? I've no idea really but its not a complicated agreement by any means. All the areas in the agreement have been out of production for well over 30 years and been in every single 'green' scheme there has been since the very first ES back in the early 90's from memory.

 

[Try to succeed]

What SFI options have people been blocked from applying for that aren’t compatible with SFI? My options are the same as they were in December when I could select AHL2 and NUM3 etc, but now they aren’t available on the drop down list in the SFI application. I’m waiting on a call back to see what the issue is. I understood that both schemes actions could go on a parcel as long as they’re not overlapping and getting double funding. So could have AB9 on 1ha out of 10, and AHL2 under sfi on the other 9ha

 

[YorkshireAndrew]

Listening to the zoom meeting now & it now looks like you can now leave a stewardship agreement & merge with sfi .

 

[Andy26]

Listening to the zoom meeting now & it now looks like you can now leave a stewardship agreement & merge with sfi .

Just joined the meeting, any more details about merging CS and SFI?

 

[Andy26]

Listening to the zoom meeting now & it now looks like you can now leave a stewardship agreement & merge with sfi .

Just listening to Janet answer this in the Q and A so sounds like its coming but not sorted yet.

Janet recommends if SFI has options you're interested in now, then join SFI now.

You can amend your SFI once per year at the moment, they are looking to increase the frequency of this.