Countryside stewardship... is it worth it?

[Guiggs]

I now have a block of land that I could potentially put into mid tier stewardship,
Quite simply is it worth it?
Does it pay?
Is it worth getting tangled up with the bureaucracy?
Am I best off out of it?
I'm more than happy to replace hedgrows,
Help the wildlife etc etc but I'm all for a quiet life so is it too much hassle?

 

[Goatherderess]

I have my application pack staring at me on the desk. Yes, it is worth it (especially with the organic payment) but OOHHHH, the time it takes to read it all and work out what to apply for. FWAG have free workshops which are useful, or you can go to their offices.

 

[upnortheast]

Do your own thing. Less you have to do with the bearers of clipboards the better, (for both you and the wildlife)

 

[carbonfibre farmer]

We have found it wasn't. Plus the burocracy and to put it mildly the shambles that emanated from natural England means a no from us.
I know @silverfox is broadly in agreement over mid tier application.

 

[franklin]

I have ordered mid tier packs.

However, I wont be applying.

The money is poor and I am really not that interested.

 

[colhonk]

No.

 

[Bald Rick]

I have my application pack staring at me on the desk. Yes, it is worth it (especially with the organic payment) but OOHHHH, the time it takes to read it all and work out what to apply for. FWAG have free workshops which are useful, or you can go to their offices.

FWAG are pretty much dead now in most of England aren't they?? I know they are still active in SW and Suffolk and sort of in Wales but not sure if the Midlands are covered any more. Shame really as a good FWAG adviser was a useful sounding board if nothing else (of course there was the odd exceptional one too .............)

 

[Goatherderess]

They organised workshops round here, I went to it pre-application pack. Made an appointment for mid-June again in the local village hall to go through application. Had to cancel as NE hadn't got round to sending the packs out...hopeless. I'm going to look at it next week, promise!

 

[Bald Rick]

They organised workshops round here, I went to it pre-application pack. Made an appointment for mid-June again in the local village hall to go through application. Had to cancel as NE hadn't got round to sending the packs out...hopeless. I'm going to look at it next week, promise!

Yes well they are still active in the SW as they had very good relations with Natural England & EA so were largely autonomous when the company as a whole went down the pan in 2010/11.
The OP is based in the Midlands were I don't think FWAG operate any more but may be wrong?

 

[Feldspar]

I think I am certainly in the minority on TFF with this viewpoint, but speaking to other businesses who are of a similar nature to us some but not all are making good use of Mid Tier. I think scale certainly comes into it. For me it was worth the time reading through the hundreds of pages of guidance to teach myself about how it all works. That lost time is offset against the value of the agreement as a whole which is sizeable six figure sum. If, however, I had 100ac of my own, it probably wouldn't be worth it because I'd still have to spend all the time reading the paperwork (or paying an agent) and I would get a much smaller amount back in return.

I believe that some of the payment rates for field corners and margins give much greater returns than our average cropping returns from those marginal areas of fields. We have all our small sub 5ac fields taken out into 5 year grass at £550/ha -- again far higher margin than we would get trying to farm an awkward small field with big equipment. We use rotational fallow at £436/ha to manage weed burdens and allow mole drainers / cultivation equipment a reliably early entry at the end of the fallow period. We are using the capital grants to put in substantial lengths (1.5km) of hardcore tracks which are paid for by the grants. A neighbouring estate were doing the same and getting grants for concreting yards.

I believe, and this is only my opinion, that we face turbulent times ahead. Mid Tier offers us a substantial diversified income with quite a different risk profile to our main business activities. I believe that it adds resilience to the business and looking back now I wish I'd applied for much greater areas if I knew I would have been successful. With the record keeping requirements and failing from NE, I think farmers have adopted the conclusion that it is simply too complicated. However, if you allow the businesses that are prepared to navigate that complexity the unchallenged ability to do so, you run the risk of giving them a competitive edge which may ultimately not be to your advantage.

On the slightly woolier side of things, I really enjoy the diversity of landscape that Mid Tier allows. I enjoy looking at the wildflower meadows that I have around my house. Seeing barn owls and grey partridges in the fallow areas bring a considerable amount of pleasure, and I value that on top of the £, shilling and pence.

 

[chipchap]

Our HLS expired last autumn.

We were encouraged to apply for higher tier, but have not. There is just too much record keeping and paperwork and general hoops to jump through.
Our swards have gotten into a very bad state under HLS too.
You will all know when I am brassic when I join!

 

[Henarar]

on our permanent grassland we couldn't make it work, lots of hassle for a few quid and we have been in environmental schemes for nearly 20 years

 

[DrWazzock]

No.

 

[Extreme Optimist]

Getting out of my old scheme as soon as possible. Really don't think it is worth it

 

[Sid]

I went through it all last year looked at the work and man hours involved and binned it all except the organic maintenance and conversion. The rest just was a PIA

 

[Gone Shooting]

No.

 

[DrWazzock]

Very pleasing this year to see fields neatly cropped without rough 6m margins. The margins never really did provide much benefit over and above that already provided by the wide ditch banks which are still there, but they provided a foothold for pernicious weeds which could soon get out of control without considerable management and attention.

One less problem to deal with.

 

[Red Fred]

I went to a meeting the other day where it was being discussed as our HLS runs out at the end of the year, but they said the area/management payments would be about 1/3 of the HLS level, while the capital amounts would be about the same, so sadly it looks like the end, although with a fair bit of SSSI it will still have to be managed sympathetically.

 

[JJT]

In my opinion its only worth doing if you can get plenty of capital grants, replacing broken concrete yards, dry stone walling etc. The annual payment bit isnt worth doing on its own.

 

[gone up the hill]

Ordered a mid tier pack over three weeks ago! Still not got it and when I asked how long before it would be sent they said they had a backlog of 1000 application packs to send out.

Utter Farce and a complete waste of time, looking online the scheme is overly complicated and drowning in red tape and the payment rates are no where near good enough for the hassle involved

Thus we are out before even looking at it.