Sustainable Farming Incentive: how the scheme will work in 2022

Sustainable farming incentive details published today 2 December 2021

Status
Not open for further replies.

HallFarmBill

Member
Arable Farmer
Yes - you can enter your arable parcels into SFI alongside your other parcels in CS. You can also have the same parcel in both schemes as long as we're not paying you twice for the same thing, or for 2 incompatible things.
We're in the SFI pilot, and as I understood it we could not have the same parcel(s) in SFI & CS. Has that now changed, and if so how can we do it? No wish to get paid twice, but for example just CS hedges do not stop us having the SFI soils standard on the rest of the parcel area.
 

spin cycle

Member
Location
north norfolk
sorry @Janet Hughes Defra .....but at those payment rates you're

1638461878464.png
 

Campani

Member
So what does this all mean to a 300 acre grass , beef farm non sda in farming talk ??
From next year you can sign up for a 3-year agreement with two options focussing on soil health. There will be the possibility to sign up for agreements in the future focusing on different areas.
Introductory level – £28 per hectare

  • test soil organic matter
  • undertake a soil assessment and produce a soil management plan
  • 95% green cover to protect soil (no more than 5% bare ground over winter)
Intermediate level – £58 per hectare

  • test soil organic matter
  • undertake a soil assessment and produce a soil management plan
  • 95% green cover to protect soil (no more than 5% bare ground over winter)
  • Establish or maintain herbal leys to improve soil health on at least 15% of land in the standard

scroll about halfway down this link https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...ng-incentive-how-the-scheme-will-work-in-2022 to get the full details of what's required.
 
I reseeded a 30 acre field in September of which a good third has "become bare" due to pests. I'm not really sure how I could of ensured this didn't happen.

The bumph states that I should of "ensured early establishment" but Spring reseeds are exactly reliable in the dry south-east.
The main thing is that you do your best to implement the standards, using the method most suited to your farm.

We know that even if you do everything right things don’t always go to plan in farming, given the weather, pests and so on. That's why we’re taking a new approach to agreement monitoring: when things go wrong (unless you're committing fraud or some other sort of clear wrongdoing) we'll help you get back on track rather than penalise you as has happened in schemes in the past.
 
As an arable farm with 20% woodland,£40/ha on the land I have that is eligible will not compensate for my %age loss of BPS even before I take account of the extra costs involved. Also, there seems to be very little if any benefit for the environment or wildlife.
The CS Arable offer I am currently in pays better and does much more for wildlife.
I hoped for something much more ambitious and interesting to get involved with.
We will be adding in more levels of ambition and more standards over time, so there will be something for everyone and plenty of ambition in the scheme as we continue to roll it out. We've provided a list of the standards we'll introduce over the next few years in the publication today. Meanwhile these standards do have benefits and give good value for money, and we'd encourage you and others to keep with CS for things not covered by these standards - we'll provide a way for you to transfer smoothly into the new schemes when they're ready, from 2024.
 
We're in the SFI pilot, and as I understood it we could not have the same parcel(s) in SFI & CS. Has that now changed, and if so how can we do it? No wish to get paid twice, but for example just CS hedges do not stop us having the SFI soils standard on the rest of the parcel area.
Yes, you can do that now, in the main scheme from 2022 you can have both CS and SFI on the same parcel, so long as we're not paying you twice for the same thing, and they're not contradictory actions
 
If £44/ha is the best you can do @Janet Hughes Defra ,every bit of my farm will have to produce! So it will be bye bye any margins or wild bird mix and the organic permanent pasture will have to be fertilized to make up for the loss of sub on it.
Hi there - this is just the payment level for one standard - we'll be introducing more standards in 2023, 2024 and 2025 and you can enter into as many as you like. We'll also be adding advanced levels of ambition which will have a higher payment rate, from 2023. So there will opportunities to get paid more to do a wider range of things and at higher levels of ambition. If you come into the scheme in 2022, you can add higher levels of ambition and other standards as you go along.
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
So what does this all mean to a 300 acre grass , beef farm non sda in farming talk ??
So this is as i understand it so no liabilty accepted :) if you can meet intermediate grassland at £58/ha you will make about £7000 a year less associated cost plus £522 for the vet to come once a year and do your health plan. Or if you can only do basic at £28/ha then about £3300 less costs
 
My current HLS scheme ends in Feb. I can't start a mid or higher tier till Jan 23.

Can I apply for the sfi for the 10 months of 2022 when I'm not in a scheme, without double funding?
SFI agreements are for 3 years - you can't only join for 10 months. However, you can be in both CS and SFI on the same parcel, so long as we're not paying you for the same thing twice, and so long as the actions are compatible. So you may well be able to do both, if you know what you want to do in mid or higher tier? FOr example, you could have CS hedgerows and SFI soils on the same parcel.
 

Old apprentice

Member
Arable Farmer
Actually using other countries resources and keeping our own in reserve isn't such a daft idea, but it needs to be kept in reserve in a state that it can be used quickly if needed.
One stay do you think they are capable or indeed planing to do that ?
 

Goffer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Yorkshire
£11.33 / ac . There's more to be done to a business becoming more efficient than creating more paperwork to achieve that value. I could grass all my worst land cut in July and feed to the cattle than join in with this . If you serious about controlling pollution and doing the right thing for the environment you need investment in capital projects that prevent it happening. Not padering miniscule amounts to a broad spectrum acerage which basically has continued to be done regardless of any scheme . Why because any farmer worth his salt knows his top asset is soil. Keep it dry and feed it well , be soil or human the result will be the same - HEALTHY
 
So what does this all mean to a 300 acre grass , beef farm non sda in farming talk ??
You can get paid either £28/ha or £58/ha a year to look after your improved grassland soil by doing a combination of:

not having more than 5% bare land over winter
testing your soil organic matter every 5 years and making a plan to improve it
(for the £58/ha payment only: having at least 15% of the land in herbal leys

You can do this on however many parcels of land you want. The percentages apply to the amount of land you decide to put into the scheme.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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

  • 1,292
  • 1
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/
Top