Poll : Have you signed up to SFI ?

[willyorkshire]

I'm in pilot, advanced. There is not a single option that would encourage me to take land out of production. I can 'recover' about 25% BPS using soils option BUT the commitment is for 20%. So despite fact all our land is now strip tilled, there's bgr all reward.

 

[Aspiring Peasants]

Signed up for SFA, is the other one for Imbeciles?

They're both pretty much the same

 

[Sandpit Farm]

My thoughts on how it should roughly look…

Tiered flat rate
£80/acre upto 300 acres
£50/acre from 300 to1000 acres
£20/acre over 1000 acres

Take the saved cash and put into an expanded CS scheme that amalgamates the more permanent aspects of HLS like arable reversion, up the payments for GS2/3/4 type of options as well as a sensible level for upland areas
Focus the arable payments on the existing type of AB / SW options

Job done, treat yourself to a midweek pint

Wouldn't larger business just change business structure to take advantage of payments? 1000 acre farm is only 5 x 200 acre farms

 

[ajd132]

On that then, have Defra said anything about how/ when the money will be doled out ? You will I imagine be making that ww/sb decision within a fairly tight timeframe. How are they planning to administer that one have they said ? Will you put a claim in for x acres on 31 Dec ? What if you had entered y acres ? What if it then comes stupidly wet in spring and you only end drilling z acres ? Are they paying out if it is left as fallow or only if you get a spring crop established ?

From what a gather you let them know what you have achieved and Havnt. So if you don’t achieve the requisite for intermediate, I.e cover crops on I think 20% then you tell them and you will be downgraded to the entry level.
no idea what happens if you get nothing drilled in the spring. Presume you still get paid if you have achieved what they ask you to do.

 

[ajd132]

How does that work then?
I wasn't aware it was a take it or leave it option as a backup to failing to plant option.

I’ve got the cover crops in as usual. But I may choose to drill wheat into that land if I can. So from what I gather I inform them I Havnt achieved what is set out for the intermediate level so get downgraded? I may be wrong!

my point was it’s not enough money to get hung up about

 

[MrNoo]

You're kidding yourself. If the payment was more attractive I am sure most farmers would jump at it. Let's face it, its only about the money

And all the bloody paperwork, not worth the hassle

 

[J 1177]

My thoughts on how it should roughly look…

Tiered flat rate
£80/acre upto 300 acres
£50/acre from 300 to1000 acres
£20/acre over 1000 acres

Take the saved cash and put into an expanded CS scheme that amalgamates the more permanent aspects of HLS like arable reversion, up the payments for GS2/3/4 type of options as well as a sensible level for upland areas
Focus the arable payments on the existing type of AB / SW options

Job done, treat yourself to a midweek pint

That would be simple but too simple for civil servants. Its as if they have to make it as complicated as pos to keep themselves busy

 

[J 1177]

You're kidding yourself. If the payment was more attractive I am sure most farmers would jump at it. Let's face it, its only about the money

Shock horror businesses being about money

 

[Boysground]

So if TFF gives a representative sample, currently 91%of farmers are not going to be involved with SFI. I wonder how much it has cost to get to this point? Certainly the consultants have got their money and the country hasn’t had any value from them.

Bg

 

[Spencer]

Significant Funding Issues..

 

[texelburger]

Right idea, but I’m not getting out of bed for £80/acre.

Got to start at a minimum of £125/ac decreasing as the acreages go up with payments of £1000/acre for buffer strips as I, too,wouldn't get out of bed.

 

[T Hectares]

Wouldn't larger business just change business structure to take advantage of payments? 1000 acre farm is only 5 x 200 acre farm

I’d base it on the claim from the previous year and attach payment to the SBI not partners, allowing for retirement, sales, etc to limit that in the first year and police any new SBI’s to help stop this happen going forward

Luckily though, I don’t work for DEFRA so my view is irrelevant

What’s your proposal ??

 

[T Hectares]

That would be simple but too simple for civil servants. Its as if they have to make it as complicated as pos to keep themselves busy

That was my point, we had the structures in place to deliver whatever was needed, a bit of restructuring was all that was needed not a wholesale change into a myriad of unworkable, complicated schemes with the inevitable new software that won’t work and the following 5 years of disruption until it all works as it should have done on day one

This is why I will never succeed in DEFRA

 

[ajd132]

And all the bloody paperwork, not worth the hassle

There really is minimal paperwork in this instance to be fair to it

 

[willyorkshire]

From what a gather you let them know what you have achieved and Havnt. So if you don’t achieve the requisite for intermediate, I.e cover crops on I think 20% then you tell them and you will be downgraded to the entry level.
no idea what happens if you get nothing drilled in the spring. Presume you still get paid if you have achieved what they ask you to do.

In pilot winter crops count as green cover but I guess some NGO objected to that!

 

[rusty]

Looked into joining the pilot scheme but would have been worse off and more paperwork to do as well.

 

[DaveGrohl]

From what a gather you let them know what you have achieved and Havnt. So if you don’t achieve the requisite for intermediate, I.e cover crops on I think 20% then you tell them and you will be downgraded to the entry level.
no idea what happens if you get nothing drilled in the spring. Presume you still get paid if you have achieved what they ask you to do.

What if we haven‘t achieved what we said we would’ve? Do we have a vote of no-confidence?

 

[ajd132]

What if we haven‘t achieved what we said we would’ve? Do we have a vote of no-confidence?

No idea

 

[Grass And Grain]

You're kidding yourself. If the payment was more attractive I am sure most farmers would jump at it. Let's face it, its only about the money

It is about money. I think it's also about inflexibility.

I know SFI isn't CS, but CS has a list of dozens of options. We can choose the ones which suit our own individual farming system. ELS was also popular because you could get your points using several of many different methods.

So yes the payment levels are way too low, and they haven't provided much in the way of choices.

This is only the first offering of SFI, with more standards to come and hence more chance to increase overall payment amount. However, for chance of each new payment DEFRA want something doing, so although the total amount of available cash goes up, the farmer's net profit from SFI doesn't really go up that much because of the costs associated with complying with the prescriptions (which are pretty much equal to the remuneration!).

Meanwhile we've to make ends meet.

Only thing I can think is for everyone to send their CVs to DEFRA. Recon there'll be plenty of work, because they need a hand with ELMS.

 

[Huno]

You're kidding yourself. If the payment was more attractive I am sure most farmers would jump at it. Let's face it, its only about the money