Arable offer calculation

[Try to succeed]

Just bringing this thread back to life...
So the winter bird food option; needs to be established by mid June. I have a crop in a couple of locations where this is destined to go in spring. I’m hoping I can satisfy this rule by broadcasting the smaller seeds such as mustard, millet, radish etc on to the standing crop. Then harvest as normal and if it hasn’t taken appropriately just drill it conventionally with my full mix with the sunflowers etc. According to an ex Natural England employee this would be absolutely fine. Is anyone else in the same boat with this?

 

[Brisel]

Just bringing this thread back to life...
So the winter bird food option; needs to be established by mid June. I have a crop in a couple of locations where this is destined to go in spring. I’m hoping I can satisfy this rule by broadcasting the smaller seeds such as mustard, millet, radish etc on to the standing crop. Then harvest as normal and if it hasn’t taken appropriately just drill it conventionally with my full mix with the sunflowers etc. According to an ex Natural England employee this would be absolutely fine. Is anyone else in the same boat with this?

Is that AB9? Very good question. If we could do this then we'd be able to get another cash crop off first which helps the economics nicely. Playing by the mid June rule means 2 years out of production which the payment doesn't cover

 

[Try to succeed]

Is that AB9? Very good question. If we could do this then we'd be able to get another cash crop off first which helps the economics nicely. Playing by the mid June rule means 2 years out of production which the payment doesn't cover

Are we likely to get an inspection before year 5 to check on us though? They can’t claim 5 years’ money back if they come in June next year! I should add I wouldn’t be breaking rules here, nor am I trying to. Just wondering how to get round an issue within the rules.

 

[Try to succeed]

Is that AB9? Very good question. If we could do this then we'd be able to get another cash crop off first which helps the economics nicely. Playing by the mid June rule means 2 years out of production which the payment doesn't cover

Sorry yes, that is AB9. All the others have a later establishment window which isn’t an issue. The offer wasn’t a sure thing when we were drilling and putting pre em on so would be very annoying to have to spray it out after having some inputs

 

[Oakbank]

Initially NE stated that if you had applied for Stewardship with the AB9 option then you should either leave the land bare, or be prepared to destroy the crop so you could plant the crop before June 15th. However, they have been so poor at getting agreements out in good time that this has not always been reasonable as crops were well on their way to harvest before any paperwork arrived to confirm the agreement details. The only legitimate solution should be not claiming the payment for that area of AB9 in year 1, then planting it as required in year 2.
I do not think that harvesting the crop and claiming the AB9 payment would be acceptable to the RPA, if you were inspected and caught doing this. Strictly speaking if you do not plant the crop by the June 15th deadline then you should not claim for that area of your claim form.

 

[Feldspar]

Sorry yes, that is AB9. All the others have a later establishment window which isn’t an issue. The offer wasn’t a sure thing when we were drilling and putting pre em on so would be very annoying to have to spray it out after having some inputs

I understand your plight, and in previous years NE have been very slow to send offers out. However, I would not try this trick if I were you. It would not look good to an inspector and isn't worth the potential downside. We have some AB9 to put in the spring and have just left these areas (we did whole fields making it easier) for a possible spring crop if our agreement was not accepted.

 

[Try to succeed]

I understand your plight, and in previous years NE have been very slow to send offers out. However, I would not try this trick if I were you. It would not look good to an inspector and isn't worth the potential downside. We have some AB9 to put in the spring and have just left these areas (we did whole fields making it easier) for a possible spring crop if our agreement was not accepted.

Most of mine is awaiting a spring crop or is already an AB9 mix done off our own backs for the ecological benefits so I suppose I’d better be safe rather than sorry and spray it out. Lovely lush osr on one plot and wheat on an other. Hoping the pigeons will target that 0.4ha of osr this winter and make me feel better about getting rid!!

 

[D14]

I am filling in my Arable offer online this weekend, and so far, I'm quite impressed. My one query is that when I look at my claim value over the 5 years its approx 50% more than I am expecting. Anybody else noticed this @Feldspar and others? I'm going for the basic 2% bird food, 1% nectar and buffers next to watercourses.
TIA

If your referring to the spreadsheet you get sent by natural England, it doesn’t calculate correctly and is a known fault. When you get the offer through it’ll be at least 25% less than the spreadsheet.