SFI Soil Management plan?

[Farma Parma]

Whats folks doing as in approx costs for every arable field you plan too put in this?
one quote ive had is £90 for every field.
Which is pretty much going to wipe out 80% of my first years payment
So thats deffo not happening.
Looking for a cheaper way of gathering this info.
I allready soil sample every 4 years & have full crop planning advice on P&K & LIME all vari rate etc etc
And full Nitrogen Plans all done properly.

 

[An Gof]

What does the £90 cover?

 

[Hindsight]

Whats folks doing as in approx costs for every arable field you plan too put in this?
one quote ive had is £90 for every field.
Which is pretty much going to wipe out 80% of my first years payment
So thats deffo not happening.
Looking for a cheaper way of gathering this info.
I allready soil sample every 4 years & have full crop planning advice on P&K & LIME all vari rate etc etc
And full Nitrogen Plans all done properly.

As An Gof says what does that cover? Soil analyses etc? As for the paper plan document we are going to roll out and adapt the document put together for the ELS soil management plan. If i recall hardly got a fee for doing those, grumpy farmers seemed to me to roll into the agronomy fee but wheat was £70 tonne.

 

[fudge]

As An Gof says what does that cover? Soil analyses etc? As for the paper plan document we are going to roll out and adapt the document put together for the ELS soil management plan. If i recall hardly got a fee for doing those, grumpy farmers seemed to me to roll into the agronomy fee but wheat was £70 tonne.

You consultants have got some neck! Surely the plan can be summed up in four words, continue with successful management! You cannot charge 90 GBP for that, who do you think you are? Lady Mone?

 

[Clive]

SFI is supposed to be doable WITHOUT agent

everything i’ve seen so far seems to be

but if a farmer can’t be bothered to do the work themselves they shouldn’t really expect to get paid

Subsidies really have made this industry lazy

 

[Hindsight]

You consultants have got some neck! Surely the plan can be summed up in four words, continue with successful management! You cannot charge 90 GBP for that, who do you think you are? Lady Mone?

Oh dear, soz. You do not have to use consultants. The requirement for a written plan is quite straightforward. Presume most folk still have a copy of the soil protrction review to plagiarise. I thought my post gave that as a clue. But anyway I will toodle off with my neck. Sorry you found my post offensive. Hevy ho, Cheers.

 

[Farma Parma]

What does the £90 cover?

Charge the folks who do all my current soil work anyways?
i'll end up doing it myself if thats the case
Its like doing most of it all over again tho & cant see the point.

 

[Farma Parma]

SFI is supposed to br doable WITHOUT agent

everything i’ve seen so far seems to be

but if a farmer can’t be bothered to do the work themselves they shouldn’t really expect to get paid

Subsidies really have made this industry lazy

Its hardly worth the effort tho thats the issue esp at £22/ha & my preferred winter cropping doesnt fit into the better paying option.
Defra has no idea.

 

[Farma Parma]

As An Gof says what does that cover? Soil analyses etc? As for the paper plan document we are going to roll out and adapt the document put together for the ELS soil management plan. If i recall hardly got a fee for doing those, grumpy farmers seemed to me to roll into the agronomy fee but wheat was £70 tonne.

i bet its costs £40 a field for the soil to be tested for a start,
Am doing that every four years anyways but oh no in the SFI you have to do all fields your claiming on within the first 12months
Bloody idiots.

 

[fudge]

SFI is supposed to br doable WITHOUT agent

everything i’ve seen so far seems to be

but if a farmer can’t be bothered to do the work themselves they shouldn’t really expect to get paid

Subsidies really have made this industry lazy

Bullpoo if you qualify and apply expect to get paid eventually. Fortunately I don’t need this therefore won’t be applying ATM.

 

[E_B]

Was asked to provide a copy of a soil management plan as part of the pilot. A paragraph on each field talking about topography, soil type, historic indices, management practices and run off risk was deemed adequate, along with a sentence or two about how to do things better if you can think of anything.

 

[Vader]

Its hardly worth the effort tho thats the issue esp at £22/ha & my preferred winter cropping doesnt fit into the better paying option.
Defra has no idea.

Correct.
It's not worth the effort.
Especially if you will have to alter cropping. We prefer winter crops unless a good malting contract comes up .

 

[Farma Parma]

Correct.
It's not worth the effort.
Especially if you will have to alter cropping. We prefer winter crops unless a good malting contract comes up .

Spring crops on a whole aint much use here.
Ive got the peas next year & thats basically it.
Anonnyingly i cant year or year tell them in this SFI what my Fallow area might be as you cant claim on that land neither
so you either knock off the maximum it could ever be in the higher mid tier scheme for the 3years or reduce it hoping you dont actually need as much fallow
Sustainable Farming its completly the opposite

 

[Clive]

if its not worth the effort then don’t bother

easy !

 

[ollie989898]

i bet its costs £40 a field for the soil to be tested for a start,
Am doing that every four years anyways but oh no in the SFI you have to do all fields your claiming on within the first 12months
Bloody idiots.

Full spectrum soil test is about £25 a go.

Why would you sample every field in one year? That makes no sense.

Do not allow anyone from any kind of quango take soil samples. Take your own or pay an agronomist to do it- you don't want your soil test results being on the radar of any one else lest the ministry come up with some kind of phosphate ban and use your own test results against you.

A written plan for each field need only note the soil type, topography and anything of note. If there is a slope involved you might mention not ploughing it up and down or applying slurry on the surface etc etc.

Some agronomists will do this kind of thing- for a fee.

 

[Badshot]

Whats folks doing as in approx costs for every arable field you plan too put in this?
one quote ive had is £90 for every field.
Which is pretty much going to wipe out 80% of my first years payment
So thats deffo not happening.
Looking for a cheaper way of gathering this info.
I allready soil sample every 4 years & have full crop planning advice on P&K & LIME all vari rate etc etc
And full Nitrogen Plans all done properly.

That's exactly why I dropped out of the pilot.
The costs involved in hitting all the things they want , meant there was nothing left.

 

[Clive]

requirement to soil test every 4 years is nothing new ? i believe its long been a cross compliance requirement and also red tractor ! ……. so compulsory to access uk markets

testing soil is also a pretty fundamental part of farming profitably!


soil management plans (erosion risk etc) were also a cross compliance / red tractor condition not so long ago meaning everyone should already have this lurking in a filing cabinet somewhere ?

why on earth would anyone need to pay an agent to get this done ?

 

[ollie989898]

requirement to soil test every 4 years is nothing new ? i believe its long been a cross compliance requirement and also red tractor ! ……. so compulsory to access uk markets

testing soil is also a pretty fundamental part of farming profitably!


soil management plans (erosion risk etc) were also a cross compliance / red tractor condition not so long ago meaning everyone should already have this lurking in a filing cabinet somewhere ?

why on earth would anyone need to pay an agent to get this done ?

Lots of the clients I know would prefer to pay someone to do this sort of thing as they don't have the time nor interest to do it. For many of them their soil test results were only coincidental really and didn't actually save them much money annually.

 

[Farma Parma]

requirement to soil test every 4 years is nothing new ? i believe its long been a cross compliance requirement and also red tractor ! ……. so compulsory to access uk markets

testing soil is also a pretty fundamental part of farming profitably!


soil management plans (erosion risk etc) were also a cross compliance / red tractor condition not so long ago meaning everyone should already have this lurking in a filing cabinet somewhere ?

why on earth would anyone need to pay an agent to get this done ?

you still have the actual charge for testing every field within 12months to claim SFI
I do this in a 4 year cycle with the inputs supplier anyways & all done on a quad witha GPS guided auto sampler.
stuff doing it all by hand. weve moved on a bit now you know.
But oh no they want every fields results in one year.
Sod that. cost me £1200 extra just for the lab to do all the resampling.
there has to be a way around some of this pointless work that your doing anyways

 

[Farma Parma]

Lots of the clients I know would prefer to pay someone to do this sort of thing as they don't have the time nor interest to do it. For many of them their soil test results were only coincidental really and didn't actually save them much money annually.

Most of mine are done once the combine is out the fields at harvest ive plenty on then to get involved in any of it.