Anyone done Mid Tier themselves
- Thread starter bobk
- Start date
spin cycle
Member
- Location
- north norfolk
marshbarn
Member
- Location
- shropshire
Allways done all the paperwork myself from the early days of IACS to SFP and BPS , And ELS and now Mid Tier stewardship, not one agent ever involved. Just need to read the booklets and get stuck in .
- Location
- Near Colchester
I had help for the first one but then when I got to the second - took on more land later - I did it myself. It is tedious but doable.
The agro is going to help , just a matter of getting the correct options .
Yes.
So I am hoping, in case STW don't come through with the latest STEPS Agreements as they have run out of funding!
- Location
- Huntingdon
yes but it was capital only & relatively small amount.
a good covering letter and a 'strong' case using buzz words helps apparently
a good covering letter and a 'strong' case using buzz words helps apparently
farmerm
Member
- Location
- Shropshire
That is correct, even if no options are applied to the SSSI land on your holding. Bit of a ball ache but I found doing a full application rather than taking the option gives far more flexibility anyway. Yes do your own, you know what works where on your farm far better than your agent and at the end of the day it is you that is responsible for compliance so you need to know what you are having to comply with! Even if it takes you twice as long as the agent to do the application you are earning/saving yourself half the agents hourly fee and that is probably still double the average farmers hourly earnings...agreed.... but you can't go that route if you've a sssi i believe
Yes did it 3 years ago. Fair bit of back and forth between the rpa but found them very helpful to be honest and they would reply generally within a few hours with any queries. I probably could of just spent 30 mins on the phone with them sorting it but felt a paper trail via email was a safer option thinking forward.
Ours was for £60,000 in total over the 5 years. Make sure you use their field area figures and not what the fields really are and you won't have any issues. The annual claims process is very easy as well. If you can do crop and livestock recording and your red tractor stuff then you can easily do a stewardship application.
There are a few ex FWAG advisers who have a more reasonable hourly rate and are experienced at CS schemes. As above, it will probably be a good investment when you consider the value of the agreement. I see no shame in paying for advice in bureaucratic government schemes where the cost of getting it wrong can really add up.
Buzz words and lots of "linkage" to existing stewardship and conservation stuff pleases them
- Location
- Near Colchester
You also have to make sure that the hedge lengths (if you are applying for hedge maintenance) agree with the RPA ones on your field maps. Otherwise you have to go through the RLE 1 process to alter the hedge lengths to what you think you have.
- Location
- Cotswolds
I don't like paperwork but have done 3 mid-tier applications myself. The advantage is that you can put options exactly where you want. It's a bit frustrating if you have signed up for 5 years and options aren't exactly where you want. I actually found Natural England very helpful when applying.
- Location
- South Shropshire
Did my HLS scheme all myself back in 2006.
Lady from Natural England said it was far better than the agent ones.
It was apparently the office joke, trying to work out where the agent had parked his Range Rover to fill in the options!
Lady from Natural England said it was far better than the agent ones.
It was apparently the office joke, trying to work out where the agent had parked his Range Rover to fill in the options!