Sustainable Farming Incentive: how the scheme will work in 2022

Sustainable farming incentive details published today 2 December 2021

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Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
no you have to test each parcel you put in the sfi , not on a farm basis . that bars all the small farms out due to cost and complication

Except under Farming Rules for Water you will have to test each field anyway, LOI test doesn't add much cost.

For the last three years I have been asking for soil organic matter on a few fields when submitting soil samples for standard pH,P,K,Mg analysis. I have said to the farmers it would eventually become a requirement and it would be interesting to get some idea of the levels. I tend to use Anglian Soil Analysis lab. I will have to dig out an invoice but was about an additional £6 a sample.
 

andybk

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Mendips Somerset
Except under Farming Rules for Water you will have to test each field anyway, LOI test doesn't add much cost.
be more sense for DEFRA to take on all these costs for the testing and stop the christmas present buying under the grant schemes , Your business can either afford the tools of your job or not ,
I have always been pretty self sufficient , making do and mend ,my kits old but reliable, i dont need some new shiney paint .
But i cant do anything with professional services , they are the biggest cost to my business for minimal return (except vets) , and being told i need to spend to stay in , just makes the whole change unviable
 
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Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
Anyone see the article on the 10pm news.

No but I just looked it up on the app.

Usual same old same old lazy reporting based on stereotypes. Charities stating it’s not going far enough…usual line they trot out without even reading it. I guess same for NFU/CLA etc too because there is no mention that this won’t even cover half the cost.

And a typically misinformed quote about CAP:

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D83B75E1-03C5-4691-BE61-26F856176137.jpeg
 

B'o'B

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Rutland
be more sense for DEFRA to take on all these costs for the testing and stop the christmas present buying under the grant schemes , your business can either afford the tools of your job or not , I have always been pretty self sufficient , making do and mend ,my kits old but reliable, i dont need some new shiney paint .
But i cant do anything with professional services , they are the biggest cost to my business for minimal return (except vets) , and being told i need to spend to stay in , just makes the whole change unviable
Unless your average field size is less than 0.5Ha then this will cover costs (If you do the work yourself) given @Hindsight's costs above.
Admittedly below an average field below 1.5Ha would make it not worth the bother
 

willy

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Rutland
I hate to be a stereotypical farmer, but this is typical Defra peronel at their best, providing the country with sweet FA, after wasting £000000s on devising a plan that's is just a complete dog mess.

How we beak this cycle I really do not know. But it's becoming a complete joke.
 

onesiedale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Derbyshire
Of course we would not like you to do that, for any reason at all. Meadows are incredibly precious and important.

I'd suggest that if you have meadows and you would like to have them in a scheme then your best option would be to go into / stay in CS until we introduce the relevant standards into SFI - we'll be adding more standards in 2023, 2024 and 2025 and we'll provide a smooth way for you to transfer from CS into SFI when SFI is ready.
@Janet Hughes Defra but why can't the SFI value permanent pasture NOW? It is probable the single most feature of our national landscape that achieves ALL of DEFRAs goals for soil quality, flood mitigation, food production, biodiversity, public amenities and rural social structure.
if PP was valued correctly at, say, £150/ha then your targets would be met overnight and still within budget.
 

Vader

Member
Mixed Farmer
@Janet Hughes Defra but why can't the SFI value permanent pasture NOW? It is probable the single most feature of our national landscape that achieves ALL of DEFRAs goals for soil quality, flood mitigation, food production, biodiversity, public amenities and rural social structure.
if PP was valued correctly at, say, £150/ha then your targets would be met overnight and still within budget.
Because your a farmer and evil to nature, dont you get it yet...?
 

Vader

Member
Mixed Farmer
I don’t want to appear rude to Janet , but if they’ve been engaging with farmers, like they say they have, why are they making such a dogs dinner of things. It couldn’t be more wide of the mark if it tried.
Its offering a pittance and wont attract many farmers, and there’s been no answer to what are we to do with these OM test results, which will be massively varied across our glacial moraine anyway. We have everything from sand/ gravel to clay with fields .
They engage.
Listen to what farmers say.
Then ignore them as what fo farmers know.....?
Much better to take note of anti farming pressure groups they think...
 

Bramble

Member
Would YOU sign a legal contract to buy carbon sequestration services without a robust proof of supply?

I wouldn't......

And that's before we get into how long you are contracting to keep it buried for (50 - 100 years under the higher value contracts).

When Carbon reaches £100/ T, and I believe it must go well above that at some point, I'll start looking seriously at offering it as a service.

Who else but farmers and foresters can genuinely offer the service in the quantities the world needs?
A bit of info from yesterdays Times:

Carbon permits for industry have risen from £20/t at the beginning of the year to £76/t now. The government have stepped in and suspended the market in permits now due to the huge rise, worried about the cost for industry. They are considering releasing more permits from the ‘National Reserve’ to cool prices.

The rise in the cost of the permits has been attributed to more coal fired power stations being used in recent months as the gas price has spiralled
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
A bit of info from yesterdays Times:

Carbon permits for industry have risen from £20/t at the beginning of the year to £76/t now. The government have stepped in and suspended the market in permits now due to the huge rise, worried about the cost for industry. They are considering releasing more permits from the ‘National Reserve’ to cool prices.

The rise in the cost of the permits has been attributed to more coal fired power stations being used in recent months as the gas price has spiralled
So the government won't allow the market to set the price on carbon freely.. ..

So much for all the talk at COP26!
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
So the government won't allow the market to set the price on carbon freely.. ..

So much for all the talk at COP26!

But Holwell does it not have to be regulated and controlled as ultimately the person paying the tax is you and me, and of those two more importantly me as I do not own a farm and farmland, so if the owner of farmland is to recieve payment the tax is a direct transfer of funds from me to you. Another cost burden. Government has to decide if this unregulated or an ordered mount. As we have seen with the recent unexpected rise in Gas prices something like that is not an electoral winner. Regulated tax it will end up being. I am just wondering how much the ordinary person will have to pay as they are nudged to be greener and taxed to provide cash to others to insulate their houses etc.
 

Wolds Beef

Member
Any chance someone could post a link again to the information so we do not have to trawl through the whole thread!!
WB
 

delilah

Member
@Janet Hughes Defra but why can't the SFI value permanent pasture NOW? It is probable the single most feature of our national landscape that achieves ALL of DEFRAs goals for soil quality, flood mitigation, food production, biodiversity, public amenities and rural social structure.
if PP was valued correctly at, say, £150/ha then your targets would be met overnight and still within budget.

I reckon they get it. I reckon they know that all area based payments have to go to PP. They just have to go round the houses so that it looks like they have worked it out for themselves, rather than because some yokels told them.
 
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SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.2%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.3%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

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

    Votes: 6 3.3%

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

  • 1,287
  • 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/
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