Hill farms and sfi

[livestock 1]

Seems like most people I speak to haven’t been able to sign up due to the late roll out for us and stewardship schemes.

 

[Regenerator1]

Seems like most people I speak to haven’t been able to sign up due to the late roll out for us and stewardship schemes.

Lots of lowland farmers are in the same barbed wire boat rowing up SH1t creek... luckily mate the big landowners have just lost all their power... praise be....

 

[Regenerator1]

Look up the meaning of FORBS and plant them.. It has taken 10yrs for me to work that out but as the TFF community know.. i am but simple

 

[livestock 1]

We are in the situation of waiting for the grassland options to appear some later this month. Rates have been particularly poor for hill land and most haven’t wanted to sign up to them. Even more haven’t been able to due to els/hls extensions.

 

[Henarar]

the rates for non moorland are the same if its on a hill or not

 

[livestock 1]

the rates for non moorland are the same if its on a hill or not

Most of mine is moorland.
That’s also not true as far as herbal leys go

 

[Henarar]

Most of mine is moorland.
That’s also not true as far as herbal leys go

there is more to SFI than herbal leys but its seems to be what always gets brought up when SFI is discussed so have you a link to where it says you can't get SFI for herbal ley on top of a hill ?

 

[Henarar]

Even more haven’t been able to due to els/hls extensions.

that would apply to any farm that has HLS not just on a hill,

 

[Henarar]

Most of mine is moorland.

yes moorland is treated different be it on a hill or not

 

[livestock 1]

there is more to SFI than herbal leys but its seems to be what always gets brought up when SFI is discussed so have you a link to where it says you can't get SFI for herbal ley on top of a hill ?

It’s not practical to do it.

 

[Attam]

Interesting this. Ive just signed an agreement for my SDA land. There’s some that were meadows years ago so classed as improved so got Sam 3 for that and the rougher lotment type ground is LIG 2. Going to average out around £73 per acre. Could have added winter de stocking to it aswell but that’s not for us. There was a bit of a fuss at the start though to make sure it was classed as below the moorland line? Heard of that? Seems that if it was above the moorland line then you can’t access these options just because where a line is drawn on a map!! Over 20 years ago we tried to get it into HLS but they wouldn’t accept it and could only get ELS which payments weren’t worth the bother tbh so carried carried on stocking it to the hilt! Now it can access better payments with sfi, moved the goal posts a bit.

 

[livestock 1]

Interesting this. Ive just signed an agreement for my SDA land. There’s some that were meadows years ago so classed as improved so got Sam 3 for that and the rougher lotment type ground is LIG 2. Going to average out around £73 per acre. Could have added winter de stocking to it aswell but that’s not for us. There was a bit of a fuss at the start though to make sure it was classed as below the moorland line? Heard of that? Seems that if it was above the moorland line then you can’t access these options just because where a line is drawn on a map!! Over 20 years ago we tried to get it into HLS but they wouldn’t accept it and could only get ELS which payments weren’t worth the bother tbh so carried carried on stocking it to the hilt! Now it can access better payments with sfi, moved the goal posts a bit.

That sounds promising. Had another meeting with the agents a few weeks ago we are basically waiting to see the roll out of the new options. We have 3 sssi’s unfortunately which has caused a bit of a stop on parts of it. Hopefully will get somewhere most people haven’t managed to get into sfi in our area infact there’s only one I know of and he’s having bother with soil tests for leys

 

[livestock 1]

We have a lot above the moorland line but plenty below as well

 

[Henarar]

It’s not practical to do it.

Its not practical to grow wheat here which means I can't get certain SFI options.

 

[Wood field]

Interesting this. Ive just signed an agreement for my SDA land. There’s some that were meadows years ago so classed as improved so got Sam 3 for that and the rougher lotment type ground is LIG 2. Going to average out around £73 per acre. Could have added winter de stocking to it aswell but that’s not for us. There was a bit of a fuss at the start though to make sure it was classed as below the moorland line? Heard of that? Seems that if it was above the moorland line then you can’t access these options just because where a line is drawn on a map!! Over 20 years ago we tried to get it into HLS but they wouldn’t accept it and could only get ELS which payments weren’t worth the bother tbh so carried carried on stocking it to the hilt! Now it can access better payments with sfi, moved the goal posts a bit.

We have a piece of ground that’s reasonable grazing but classed as moor because back in the mists of time the previous owner didn’t re register it , I think it was 1969 that every thing was re registered or something like that.
It means we got a pittance of subs and now with sfi it’s worth next to nothing
All lines on a map

 

[Henarar]

Interesting this. Ive just signed an agreement for my SDA land. There’s some that were meadows years ago so classed as improved so got Sam 3 for that and the rougher lotment type ground is LIG 2. Going to average out around £73 per acre. Could have added winter de stocking to it aswell but that’s not for us. There was a bit of a fuss at the start though to make sure it was classed as below the moorland line? Heard of that? Seems that if it was above the moorland line then you can’t access these options just because where a line is drawn on a map!! Over 20 years ago we tried to get it into HLS but they wouldn’t accept it and could only get ELS which payments weren’t worth the bother tbh so carried carried on stocking it to the hilt! Now it can access better payments with sfi, moved the goal posts a bit.

We never done ELS couldn't make it add up despite doing mid tier before that and ESA before that, so we did not have any environmental schemes when SFI came in, SFI has worked well for us and comes to more than BPS did by the time the non area based payments are added in

 

[BrianV]

70 acres of Herbal weeds being disc drilled into existing leys today with another 30 acres later in the year, sons tell me we have to play the system going forward, seems crazy to me but then what do I know.

 

[BrianV]

We have a piece of ground that’s reasonable grazing but classed as moor because back in the mists of time the previous owner didn’t re register it , I think it was 1969 that every thing was re registered or something like that.
It means we got a pittance of subs and now with sfi it’s worth next to nothing
All lines on a map

We've got an 80 acre farm on the moors all divided up in 3 or 4 acre fields with walls that we cannot get classed as fields instead of moorland.
emsworthy-mire-bluebell-fields

 

[Attam]

We have a piece of ground that’s reasonable grazing but classed as moor because back in the mists of time the previous owner didn’t re register it , I think it was 1969 that every thing was re registered or something like that.
It means we got a pittance of subs and now with sfi it’s worth next to nothing
All lines on a map

Exactly it’s just where this magical line is. There’s more lotments above ours before you get out onto the fell which will be classed as moorland so no sfi for them

 

[Attam]

70 acres of Herbal weeds being disc drilled into existing leys today with another 30 acres later in the year, sons tell me we have to play the system going forward, seems crazy to me but then what do I know.

Exactly the same here. Will have 100 acre of herbal ley by autumn. Why shouldn’t we play the system like many have done before us