Are you Punished by SFI rules for doing the right thing ?

[onthehoof]

The main way to get payments for permanent pasture at this stage is through CS

How long will new CS applications be available, I understood that once Elms comes in fully in 2027 then CS will end and Elms will be the only scheme apart from existing CS agreements, would it be possible to apply for CS in 2026 to run to 2031??

 

[Janet Hughes Defra]

How long will new CS applications be available, I understood that once Elms comes in fully in 2027 then CS will end and Elms will be the only scheme apart from existing CS agreements, would it be possible to apply for CS in 2026 to run to 2031??

The last round of CS applications will be in 2023 for agreements to start from 2024 - after that all new agreements will be through the new environmental land management schemes, and those in existing CS agreements will be able to start to transition across to the new schemes (we're working to make that process as smooth as possible for everyone)

 

[delilah]

Unless it has changed since I last looked, can’t get any soils payment on unimproved permanent pasture in the lowlands. This land has been in old CSS then HLS for 20 years with no inputs and is not dominated by ryegrass so does not qualify as improved grassland, yet NO payment for the fantastic soil quality and protection. It was put into no input management on a flood plain to protect an aquatic SSSI suffering from phosphate enrichment, too. Another section is species rich hay meadow and a Local Wildlife Site with at least 600 years of permanent pasture creating enviable levels of organic matter.

Some of this land went into new CS agreement but not most of it as the grassland payment rates in Mid Tier are crap, but we can’t even get a SFI soil payment in it! I know that hopefully we will get a payment for the biodiversity element in future under a LNR scheme, but we can’t ‘stack’ onto a soil payment so we will be short changed. We need money to start replacing BPS now. After 20+ years of being a passionate advocate of agri-environment schemes (finalist in the old FWAG Silver Lapwing awards too), I am sadly disillusioned and fed up @Janet Hughes Defra

I reckon that everyone involved in designing ELMS now recognizes that they made a fundamental error in not focusing on the public good delivered by PP.
The only question that matters now, is will they be brave enough at the 11th hour to publicly acknowledge this, to delay/ scrap the SFI options that fiddle with cropped land, and to fast track an attractive option on PP ?

 

[primmiemoo]

I reckon that everyone involved in designing ELMS now recognizes that they made a fundamental error in not focusing on the public good delivered by PP.
The only question that matters now, is will they be brave enough at the 11th hour to publicly acknowledge this, to delay/ scrap the SFI options that fiddle with cropped land, and to fast track an attractive option on PP ?

This is the nub of discussions about here. Euchred by government's lack of understanding of PP and long leys, along with that persistent notion that somehow land that's marginal in terms of growing grain is somehow useless.

 

[onthehoof]

The last round of CS applications will be in 2023 for agreements to start from 2024 - after that all new agreements will be through the new environmental land management schemes, and those in existing CS agreements will be able to start to transition across to the new schemes (we're working to make that process as smooth as possible for everyone)

Thanks

 

[Ceri]

I reckon that everyone involved in designing ELMS now recognizes that they made a fundamental error in not focusing on the public good delivered by PP.
The only question that matters now, is will they be brave enough at the 11th hour to publicly acknowledge this, to delay/ scrap the SFI options that fiddle with cropped land, and to fast track an attractive option on PP ?

Great question............ @Janet Hughes Defra

 

[Ceri]

And leaving the EU was the only way to have a less complicated bureaucratic agricultural support system. So said george Eustace in 2016 before the referendum. Deluded, fool or liar?

Well I know wat the answer is but let's face it pretty much every farmer I spoke to at the referendum seemed to buy into Boris & Eustace's bull and was like..... - Yeh f**k the EU let's get out, we'll be far better off .......