HRW1 and HRW2 - SFI Application Hedges

[CiderJan]

I'm trying to apply for SFI with the online application and going for the hedge options as we have miles and miles of Cornish bank hedges.

Currently I have looked on RPA maps and the hedges are on there but in multiple sections to manually add up and often missing parts of hedges across fields to check. Alternatively I can go on google maps and just roughly draw a perimeter of each field but not sure how accurate this is and no hedge is a straight line here!

We have 150+ fields (average just over a Ha in size) surrounded by hedges. Both of these methods are painstakingly slow and prone to my user error.

Does anyone know of an easier way to get hedge lengths per field?

 

[soapsud]

Google maps don't account for terrain i.e. clicking distance from aerial PoV vs actually pushing a measuring wheel on non-flat ground.
We have over 50 parcels of land owned by 32 landlords spread over three counties and can't apply for schemes as it's too complicated.
Good luck.

 

[Vader]

And so reality meets defra fantasy....

 

[Manney]

I think the correct way is to add all the missing parts of hedges to the online RPA maps by filling out an rle1 form. Good luck with that though!

 

[farmerm]

View attachment 1136916
Google maps don't account for terrain i.e. clicking distance from aerial PoV vs actually pushing a measuring wheel on non-flat ground.
We have over 50 parcels of land owned by 32 landlords spread over three counties and can't apply for schemes as it's too complicated.
Good luck.

£3/hundred meters... In the wider scheme of things does terrain really make all that much difference in the length? I've just run a quick hedge measurement of a 30ac field using Magic maps and got 1400m, I would be rather surprised if I got more than 1500m if I spend 20minutes walking around it with a measuring wheel.

 

[chaffcutter]

Checked on the helpline today, payment is for one side, so if you have both sides in your control such as a roadside which you maintain you can claim twice the rate.
You also don’t need to go with what the hedges are on the ’land’ part of the website, you can claim what you know to be correct, some of ours have no hedges measured but you can claim for them anyway.

 

[Zippy768]

Checked on the helpline today, payment is for one side, so if you have both sides in your control such as a roadside which you maintain you can claim twice the rate.
You also don’t need to go with what the hedges are on the ’land’ part of the website, you can claim what you know to be correct, some of ours have no hedges measured but you can claim for them anyway.

So would one then try and get the rpa maps changed?

 

[chaffcutter]

No need afaik, just need measurements I was told, just measured them off our fieldmargin maps (and leaving out where there are none of course)!

 

[soapsud]

£3/hundred meters... In the wider scheme of things does terrain really make all that much difference in the length? I've just run a quick hedge measurement of a 30ac field using Magic maps and got 1400m, I would be rather surprised if I got more than 1500m if I spend 20minutes walking around it with a measuring wheel.

Yep. Agreed. My point was RPA is more likely to go by satalite maps than actual physical measurements on the ground. The west country can be quite hilly! CiderJan may have orchards on a slope? Who knows? I was just pointing out that RPA are mostly desk-bound so applicants should act desk-bound too. i.e. use magic maps to get the measurements. Would you say so too?

 

[CiderJan]

I used www.thelandapp.com in the end for measuring hedges as it seems to account for slope which we have many (can't drive quad across some fields as will tip). You download rpa maps and then you can draw around fields. Saved everything and so now have sfi options map for reference etc.

Found 40km of hedges in end which is more than I thought.

 

[SamN]

Similar situation here. I've used Google earth in the end, so I've got a somewhat interactive map of the hedges and fields. Worked out to be around 33km for hrw1 + 2, 70 parcels over 150ha

 

[TJ61]

Checked on the helpline today, payment is for one side, so if you have both sides in your control such as a roadside which you maintain you can claim twice the rate.
You also don’t need to go with what the hedges are on the ’land’ part of the website, you can claim what you know to be correct, some of ours have no hedges measured but you can claim for them anyway.

I made the same call about payment for road side of the hedge last week and got the answer that, I could not claim for the roadside. They had to phone me back after consulting with colleagues but she was insistent that HRW2 was one side and HRW3 was two sides. I had not even mentioned trees in hedge rows so did not have a lot of confidence that my question had been looked at properly ?

 

[farmerm]

Yep. Agreed. My point was RPA is more likely to go by satalite maps than actual physical measurements on the ground. The west country can be quite hilly! CiderJan may have orchards on a slope? Who knows? I was just pointing out that RPA are mostly desk-bound so applicants should act desk-bound too. i.e. use magic maps to get the measurements. Would you say so too?

Well Janet in a recent webinar said going forward "inspectors" have a new job title and will be taking a more faciliatory rather than penalty driven approach... now in my mind that should result in then being accepting of either physical measurements or aerial imagery measurements providing you have not taking the pee and claiming every hedge to vastly longer than it really is.. but my say doesnt have all that much weight at the RPA

 

[Horn&corn]

£23/100m I was told by a consultant as long as you’ve got a tree every 100m average over the farm. If you’ve got 40km that’s a decent amount of money.

 

[CiderJan]

Yes it adds up and is 100% more than we are getting now but it has to be at least that amount because Cornish hedges take serious amount of maintenance, especially cutting every 3 years which takes far longer and requires more passes than annual cutting due to amount of growth we get. May now break even with these payments but we are losing money looking after hedges currently so see it as a plus.

 

[jessop123]

Please could someone clarify ref claiming HRW1 &2.. when it says 1 side, if a hedge is running up between 2 fields (so I have management of both sides), am I accounting for this hedge in just 1 field or both?

 

[chaffcutter]

Both, half hedge on each field, and if it’s a roadside that you maintain then you claim both too.

 

[TJ61]

Both, half hedge on each field, and if it’s a roadside that you maintain then you claim both too.

I had a telephone conversation with rpa saying can't claim for roadside but wasn't sure because others were saying you could . I then emailed and got the answer back that you definitely cannot claim

 

[chaffcutter]

Well I’ve had an email saying if you maintain them you can, so take your pick!

 

[Dairyfarmerswife]

Isn't it HrW3 where you can claim the roadside? not HRW2?