Nutrient losses from selling hay, and costs

New Puritan

Member
Location
East Sussex
Sorry if this is a bit convoluted...

My farm is organic and all arable. By and large I would not sell hay or straw off the farm as I want to keep the organic matter here. The straw all gets chopped, and the grass / clover part of the rotation just gets mown and reincorporated.

However, I've just entered into mid-tier Countryside Stewardship, and one of the options I went for was a 4m margin around most of the fields.

Can I cut that and make it into bales under the mid tier rules (after 15 July)? How much would it deplete the soil of nutrients - a bit of searching hasn't found any kind of 'ready reckoners' for this type of thing. And what do organic conventional bales sell for (give or take)?
 

spin cycle

Member
Location
north norfolk
don't know about mid tier....but would be surprised if you could....i don't think you could do this for hls....bit surprised they let you have margins if you're organic:scratchhead:...thought the idea was to keep pesticides away from water/hedge bottoms...but if you're not using them:scratchhead:
 

New Puritan

Member
Location
East Sussex
Thanks @spin cycle ... There's nothing said about it in the offer they sent me one way or the other, but I wouldn't do it if it's not allowed. I won't stand to get a lot in any case, as grass won't grow amazingly well either. But it might be something, and it all helps. I'm trying to work out in my mind if I should worry about depleting the soil around the margin, given it's going to be out of action for 5 years anyway; and anything I make from selling the hay would be reinvested in the farm in some way anyway.
 

New Puritan

Member
Location
East Sussex
@bobk - good question... It just seems bad practice to take something and not put it back. But I have tried to explain my thinking in the previous post to yours, though I'm not saying it makes sense!
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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