Anyone done Mid Tier themselves

cb387

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cotswolds
Had this exact conversation with agronomist today. Sitting down tonight to reread all the literature. In theory should be straightforward to do, but there are always little details that are there that catch you out
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
agreed (y).... but you can't go that route if you've a sssi i believe:scratchhead:
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...
 

D14

Member
Not decrying my agent his fee but surely it can't be difficult ?

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.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
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.
 

Pan mixer

Member
Mixed Farmer
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.
 

Cotswold Len

Member
BASE UK Member
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.
 

chipchap

Member
Mixed Farmer
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!
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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