SFI Hefer
- Thread starter JO216
- Start date
- Location
- Northumberland
Seemingly, yes. It appears the 2-tier SFI is rearing it's head again, as if you were arable-minded it would be fine to rip up those complete parcels and sow a legume fallow, so long as you omitted Lucerne. 
- Location
- somerset
it would appear so, following our meeting with FWAG yesterday. Not a chance.
however, our local waterboard, Wessex, run similar schemes, and they don't apply 'stops' to land under HEFER. But, will only pay for a herbal ley, if following an arable crop.
we have rather a lot of SHINE, some of it through several fields, and we really didn't have a clue about it being on any map. The only 'scheme' under SFI, so we are told, is low input grass, not interested.
so, some acres are going into spring barley, wholecrop or grain, and apply for herbal leys in the autumn. Suspect the money might last longer through the w/board, than the guv scheme.
some land under HEFER, will stay in maize, and draw £60 acre, from w/board, sowing a cover crop, this year claimed, and will take a cut of silage, before maize again.
l can't see why full cultivation of 'historic' sites, is fine, but h/leys is not. The one field we knew about, 8ac, scheduled monument, is currently down to a herbal ley......................
Last edited:
Hindsight
Member
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Hi, can i assume you plan to plough out those areas under a SHINE designation? If so do not forget the EIA assessment Required before changing management practice on archaeological features.it would appear so, following our meeting with FWAG yesterday. Not a chance.
however, our local waterboard, Wessex, run similar schemes, and they don't apply 'stops' to land under HEFER. But, will only pay for a herbal ley, if following an arable crop.
we have rather a lot of SHINE, some of it through several fields, and we really didn't have a clue about it being on any map. The only 'scheme' under SFI, so we are told, is low input grass, not interested.
so, some acres are going into spring barley, wholecrop or grain, and apply for herbal leys in the autumn. Suspect the money might last longer through the w/board, than the guv scheme.
some land under HEFER, will stay in maize, and draw £60 acre, from w/board, sowing a cover crop, this year claimed, and will take a cut of silage, before maize again.
l can't see why full cultivation of 'historic' sites, is fine, but h/leys is not. The one field we knew about, 8ac, scheduled monument, is currently down to a herbal ley......................
- Location
- somerset
doesn't seem to be a problem
been ploughing them for years anyway, but may direct drill, some of them are somewhat wet at the moment, the extra barley, as straw, grain or wholecrop, will be welcome.
the bit l don't quite understand, is why nobody informed us.
the SFI lot, are worried about deep rooting herbs, destroying the features. Then getting the blame. We know why they are designated, we we part of an archaeological survey 18 yrs ago, some of the features are 8/9 foot deep.
we do a lot of dd anyway, so not concerned, even dd the scheduled monument field, which, from the survey, isn't what they think it is, nothing there.
but, wherever you dig/excavate in the UK, you are never going to be far from 'ancient' workings, this place has continuous farming activity for 3500 years, so they told us. The real 'hotspot' here, is under the present buildings, which l fully believe, whenever we do a post hole, or foundation in the yard, you never know quite what you will find, there's layers of yard in places.
put a barn up, got a digger in to scrape off, ready to stone, 8 ins down, a perfect stone base, from some long forgotten building, bonus.
Hindsight
Member
- Location
- Lincolnshire
doesn't seem to be a problem
been ploughing them for years anyway, but may direct drill, some of them are somewhat wet at the moment, the extra barley, as straw, grain or wholecrop, will be welcome.
the bit l don't quite understand, is why nobody informed us.
the SFI lot, are worried about deep rooting herbs, destroying the features. Then getting the blame. We know why they are designated, we we part of an archaeological survey 18 yrs ago, some of the features are 8/9 foot deep.
we do a lot of dd anyway, so not concerned, even dd the scheduled monument field, which, from the survey, isn't what they think it is, nothing there.
but, wherever you dig/excavate in the UK, you are never going to be far from 'ancient' workings, this place has continuous farming activity for 3500 years, so they told us. The real 'hotspot' here, is under the present buildings, which l fully believe, whenever we do a post hole, or foundation in the yard, you never know quite what you will find, there's layers of yard in places.
put a barn up, got a digger in to scrape off, ready to stone, 8 ins down, a perfect stone base, from some long forgotten building, bonus.
Yes, I find it odd that the these designations have limited f any impact on arable options but do herbal leys. I presume in the experts stakeholder meetings someone has taken notice of those pretty marketing diagrams from Cotswold seeds showing and emphasizing rooting depth! Law of unintended consequences!!
DANGER. MINEFIELD.
- Location
- somerset
but well worth treading carefully through it.
- Location
- Northumberland
And one that wasn't signposted in my case. Only looked at the HEFER out of interest as I graze a plot with a SAM on it, so interested to see what it said.
Somewhat surprised to find 50ac of productive improved grassland that is ineligible for benign nutrient management (NUM2), but fine for the more aggressive variant (NUM3). One might infer that livestock enterprises were being discriminated against.
I was looking to claim for a rotational SAM3 and had a tiny bit of SHINE overlap from a neighbour in one field and a huge 12ha chunk across 2 others. I contacted the Humber Archaeological society and asked whether they could be a bit more precise with their designations as I could potentially sow the field as grass, then spin on the herbal mix with my GPS enabled spreader, avoiding the relevant parts of the field.
The bloke was very helpful, turns out they have just updated the system to allow them to be more precise. The bit of overlap was taken off and the 12ha lump was reduced to 4ha, meaning I can sow an extra 8ha of herby gear at £382 = £3,056. Happy days : )
The bloke was very helpful, turns out they have just updated the system to allow them to be more precise. The bit of overlap was taken off and the 12ha lump was reduced to 4ha, meaning I can sow an extra 8ha of herby gear at £382 = £3,056. Happy days : )
Just going through this. You can do SAM3 or the legume one on parcels which have the periphery of a SHINE feature but not on any of the parcels which contain the actual feature. We have four parcels which show up in the HEFER but only one contains the actual feature the other three are just the periphery of it so they are happy for those to be entered. That's in Devon on a Wednesday anyway.....
I'm pretty sure you can do it in the parcel with the shine feature, just not on the shine feature, e.g. if it only covers 1 ha of a 12 ha field you can drill round the SHINE feature.
- Location
- somerset
we asked our county archaeological lady, about 'ways' around shine/hefer, she hasn't even got the map
The problem there, is she fully supported us, few yrs back, to get the whole farm into an HCSS scheme, £448 ha, no restriction on fert/spray, just plough. Hopefully she has forgotten it.l really enjoyed the archaeologists when they were here, found out so much about the farm, but its come back, to bite me on my ass.
the laughable bit, the better 'shine' is/will be into maize/corn. And, if we grow an arable crop on any 'shine' area, go through wessex water, they will pay for SAM3
to be honest, i'm very glad son is doing it, l might just have told them to feck off !!!!!