CAP Reform Q&A Online Discussion

[Brisel]

My question is for clarification on field margins. I have 41 km of EE3 margins, half of which are planted with canary grass & the rest as natural regeneration. Will these be eligible for EFA & how is this calculated? My ELS started before 2012.

 

[Mark C]

Can a 6m grass margin next to a water course that's not under any HLS or ELS scheme be used as a 1m buffer strip and 5m wide fallow area for my EFA obligations?

 

[Andy]

I understand that Temporary Grass may be used as fallow land for EFA's (provided that it is not sown with grass during the fallow period 1 Jan -30 June). Under Set-Aside you would have to destroy the crop/grass which grew on this land. As EFA's do not seek to limit production will it be possible to silage this ground on the 1st July and thus simply not cut the area of TG1 between 1st Jan - 30th June. Will it be possible to still apply fertilisers or manure to this area which is managed as'Fallow'

 

[Poncherello1976]

Sorry if this has already been answered somewhere. If we grow peas/beans as part of our EFA, can we grow them normally, like we have before? Or will there be any restrictions on growing them? Chemicals, Timings etc.

 

[Godber]

Echoing some of the above questions, can you confirm that grassland which has been put down in whole land parcels for over 5 years as part of the ELS scheme can be classified as 'Fallow' in the new BPS application?
These parcels are currently classified in SPS as PP4 - Permanent pasture on EU agri-environment scheme land, and The Guide to Cross Compliance in England 2014 - complete edition, p9 says "Permanent Pasture is land that has not been taken out of production under certain environmental schemes.". I take this to mean that PP4 parcels will not automatically be classified as Permanent pasture under BPS, but the Cross Compliance guidelines do not state the 'certain schemes' which it refers to, leaving an element of ambiguity.
Secondly, the 'Buffer Strips' available as an EFA option, state that they can be "parallel with, and on a slope leading to, a watercourse", but does not specify whether there can be more than one 'Buffer Strip' relating to each watercourse. Can each watercourse have more than one Buffer Strip, as long as each is a minimum width of 1m? Could these strips then be directly adjacent to one another or have few metres of fallow inbetween?

 

[Pasty]

If somebody who is 43 and has not farmed before were to take on 48 acres of land from Jan 1st 2015, what would be the process for applying for the national reserve to get entitlements? How likely is it that they would be eligible?

 

[4course]

if I grew a cover crop sown in august 2015 using a mix of barley and say mustard and then planned to either graze or destroy in early oct15 and then sow with autumn cereals how do I report this so as it would be acceptable as efa as I would have filled a declaration form in presumably before 15 may when the land parcel was in cereals and not in the inspection period

 

[4course]

what has to be done with land and what cannot be done on land used as fallow for efa between before and after the set period and how does the use of temp grass work as fallow and if a parcel of temp grass is used as efa fallow does it remain temp grass in the following years or could it be used as fallow again and if I use fallow in 2 or 3 metre strips to split a field are we going to run into the same problems re mapping as has been suggested with hedges ie late payment

 

[Enfoff]

I am a livestock keeper and have been converting arable land to pasture over the last few years. Can I convert TG1 to permenant pasture before it has been grass for 5 years to aviod the three crop rule?

 

[gone up the hill]

If I had 40 acres of arable crops ( say winter Wheat / Spring Barley ) and 100 acres of Permanent grassland adjacent to the arable land will I need to set some of the 40 acres of arable land aside to use as an EFA as well??

Thanks, for any help/advice.

 

[DefraGov]

Hi everyone, the CAP Reform team are online and working through your questions.

 

[DefraGov]

Can Fallow as a third crop also count as the EFA?

i.e. 5% of arable area left fallow to satisfy the three crop rule, can this same 5% also count as the 5% of EFA?

Hi Andy
Fallow land can count as a separate crop for Crop Diversification and the same area can count towards your Ecological Focus Areas. If you’re counting fallow land for both then the management rules for fallow land must be met for both crop diversification and EFA– the only difference is that the fallow period for EFA is longer than for fallow used for crop diversification.

The EFA fallow period is 1st January to 30th June.

 

[DefraGov]

Can Catch or Cover crops planted this autumn count towards our EFA for the 2015 BPS claim

Hi
No, catch and cover crops cannot be planted in 2014 to count towards your 2015 EFA greening requirements. The August leaflet explains that catch and cover crops must be planted in the Basic Payment Scheme Year to count as an EFA for that scheme year.

This means they will need to be planted in 2015 to count towards your 2015 BPS claim.

 

[DefraGov]

I have planted 31 acres of kale for sheep behind barley, its up and away, 16 acres of it will be ploughed up in February for spring barley the rest in april for maize, will this count for greening or is kale even classed as a catch crop in your schedule, Thanks

Hello there
No, Kale grown on its own would not count as a catch or cover crop for EFA. The latest leaflet [https://capreform.blog.gov.uk/2014/08/14/new-details-on-cap-now-available/] explains that a cover/catch crop must consist of two types (one cereal and one non-cereal) – the list of suggested crops does not contain kale because the EU rules require that crops that are ‘usually grazed’ should not be used.

Additionally the leaflet explains that catch and cover crops must be planted in the Basic Payment Scheme Year to count as an EFA for that scheme year i.e. crops planted this autumn (2014) will not count as a catch or cover crop as an EFA for 2015. We will be providing more information later in the year, or early next year on catch and cover crops.

 

[DefraGov]

I'm in the HLS, 2006 start date.
Will the 4m margins HE2, count as fallow for EFA.

Hi @silverfox
In general terms grass margins on arable land, where the land is managed as fallow land, can be counted as fallow for both Crop Diversification and an Ecological Focus Area. The periods will need to be met and so would the management rules. The management rules mean fallow land cannot be harvested or grazed, nor can grass be planted on it during the fallow period. The minimum size requirements are:

• Minimum width of 2m
• Minimum size of 0.01 hectares

 

[Waltz]

Is there a threshhold for the levels of volunteer plants in a crop? For example if a legume crop follows barley and their was high levels of barley volunteers would this still count as a nitrogen fixing crop? As the idea of this is for the environment surely it wouldn't make sense to use lots of damaging herbicides?

 

[DefraGov]

Have you got any more details about the new entrant scheme yet?
What are the criteria to get it?
Does the SFP claim have to be in the 'new entrants' name or do they just have to be in partnership and making most of the decisions?

Hi
Eligible new entrants and young farmers will be able to apply for free entitlements from the National Reserve. To qualify as a new entrant the farmer must have started their agricultural activity in 2013 or later and must submit an application for the Basic Payment Scheme not later than two years after the calendar year in which they started their agricultural activity.
In addition, in the five years before the start of their agricultural activity they must not have had any agricultural activity in their own name and at their own risk or must not have been in control of a business which carried out agricultural activity. In the case of a ‘legal person’, such as a some partnerships, the people in control of that business must not have had any agricultural activity in their own name and at their own risk or must not have had control of a business carrying out an agricultural activity in the five years before the start of the agricultural activity by the business.

Farmers will only get entitlements from the National Reserve if they’ve got more eligible land than they already hold entitlements for. We’ll provide more information about the National Reserve in October.

 

[DefraGov]

What happens to existing field margins? Can they be counted as fallow? Do they also count towards the 3 crop rule as well?

Hi
We hope our answer to 'silverfox' #5 helps you here.

 

[DefraGov]

Are there any seed rate requirements for the two different crops to be grown in order to be able to use it as a cover crop towards efa as a cereal and non cereal are stated but no mention of seed rate required?

Thank you for your question.

We do not stipulate seed rates – but we do require that the growth achieves ground cover. Farmers must therefore use sufficient seed to achieve this requirement. The August [https://capreform.blog.gov.uk/2014/08/14/new-details-on-cap-now-available/] leaflet explains that catch and cover crops must be planted in the Basic Payment Scheme Year to count as an EFA for that scheme year i.e. crops planted this autumn (2014) will not count as a catch or cover crop as an EFA for 2015.

We will be providing more information later in the year on catch and cover crops.

 

[DefraGov]

If Farmer A (who recieves entitlements) rents out 10 ha to Farmer B, and another 20 ha to Farmer C (all arable), does:

• Farmers B and C have to grow the 3 crops on their individual blocks,
• or, Farmer B have to grow 2 crops and Farmer C 2 crops,
• or, Can both farmers incorporate the smaller rented blocks into their own larger whole farm cropping rotation to ease logistics and economies of scale?

Hi
The farmer declaring the land on their application and claiming the payment on that land has to meet the greening rules, including the crop diversification requirements. All the land the farmer has at his disposal, whether rented in or for which he is the owner-occupier, will be treated together for the purposes of working out how many arable crops he needs to have.