Sustainable Farming Incentive - Pilot Information (including PAYMENT RATES)

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
@Clive time to speed dial the Defra people you had on here and ask them what happened to the simple schemes( not needing £5k spent on consultants that George Useless said we all spend)
Id suggest anyone thinking of this ,would be better off getting onto one of the wildlife offers or mid tier pronto.

Is the scheme that complex? At first glance looks like ELS with the management plans as in 2005. Doubt you will need £5k consultancy - though am sure consultants will offer to help - after all why not.
 

DRC

Member
Is the scheme that complex? At first glance looks like ELS with the management plans as in 2005. Doubt you will need £5k consultancy - though am sure consultants will offer to help - after all why not.
Yes the £5k was a tongue in cheek reference to George Eustace who quoted that most farms spend that much on consultants .
As a mainly tenant farmer , I’m more concerned about how any of it will help pay the rent
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
Yes the £5k was a tongue in cheek reference to George Eustace who quoted that most farms spend that much on consultants .
As a mainly tenant farmer , I’m more concerned about how any of it will help pay the rent

Will go into the equation when rents are reviewed as now and in the past. Nought new. Principles still the same.

If wheat is good money you will ignore the SFI if it restricts your approach to farming, and not begrudge the rent, well not begrudge too much. If wheat price is poor you will look at SFI and will be negotiating a rent reduction. The BPS monies reduction will be dealt with same way. Price of wheat forward will dictate uptake and rent

Largest immediate impact is for the BPS claimants who currently claim more than around £60 - 100k as their BPS is definitely gonna come down quick next two years. But at a business level that will depend on how good a seller they were for the 2020 harvest and the upcoming 2021 and 2022. Commodity prices have as in previous times of doom and gloom come to pass that offset the loss of payments - same as 1993 and then 2007/8.

Interesting times.
 

topground

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Somerset.
At present my time spent renewing my BPS application on an all grass holding with additional common grazing rights and no changes returns an hourly rate of reward that I can’t match anywhere else.
I will apply under the new rules but I don’t intend to stress too much about precise measurements and I will have a go at everything that appears to apply. If I get it wrong what is the worse that can happen? They take some or all of it away but since I have structured my operation so as not to rely on subsidy I am not particularly worried.
I am not sure how I can persuade the cattle rotationally grazing not to graze grass lower than the proscribed height but perhaps a highly educated civil servant will be along in a minute to advise.
Presumably boundary hedges will be subject to claims by the occupiers of the land either side and what about the trees along the boundary?
Are DEFRA still looking for pilot farms and would they be interested in one run by a committed member of the awkward squad?
 

onesiedale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Derbyshire
Maybe I overlooked it, but has anyone seen what the flat rate payment was going to be for this pilot phase? I did see that there is an anticipated 10-15 hours/month time input from the farmer. At Civil Service rates that could be quite lucrative 🤔 .
I'm guessing the initial payment rates are low because there is still BPS monies being paid as well
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
well I havent taken it all in but my take so far is for us it is carry on doing very much the same but for 50% of current payment and 500% more paperwork.

devil will be in the detail.. "Better target your nutrient application by carrying out soil mapping" At what scale, mapping what properties and how often? I can map each field with areas of heavy, very heavy and a little less heavy without much effort or cost... pH is mapped every 5 years of so. Gets expensive if they mean 1ha mapping for p, K, mg every few years

"Benefit from crop pest predators by locating their habitats next to cropped areas " so is maintaining existing hedges and grass margins enough or have we to build insect hotels in every ha...
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
Maybe I overlooked it, but has anyone seen what the flat rate payment was going to be for this pilot phase? I did see that there is an anticipated 10-15 hours/month time input from the farmer. At Civil Service rates that could be quite lucrative 🤔 .
I'm guessing the initial payment rates are low because there is still BPS monies being paid as well
thats more than a months work for some Civil Servants!
 

GeorgeK

Member
Location
Leicestershire
"During the pilot, we will also be considering the role accreditation schemes could play in supporting the delivery of environmental benefits we want to achieve."
- Red Tractor to be doing annual inspections of the schemes? Could be a deal breaker! Seems RT have already reserved places for their snouts in the trough, wonder how they managed that *cough* NFU
 

GeorgeK

Member
Location
Leicestershire
There's a section on the importance of 'land management plans,' which will record the land's starting condition and the plan to manage it. It says the plans could be published to demonstrate where public money has gone and aid 'local awareness and engagement.'
Anyone want to have their stewardship agreements published online so the local badger worriers can pore over every detail and conduct their own regular, unofficial 'audits,' the results of which would no doubt be posted on their social media accounts so the poor farmer can be attacked by a mob of keyboard eco warriors?
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
There's a section on the importance of 'land management plans,' which will record the land's starting condition and the plan to manage it. It says the plans could be published to demonstrate where public money has gone and aid 'local awareness and engagement.'
Anyone want to have their stewardship agreements published online so the local badger worriers can pore over every detail and conduct their own regular, unofficial 'audits,' the results of which would no doubt be posted on their social media accounts so the poor farmer can be attacked by a mob of keyboard eco warriors?

The more i read the more I think I’m out

At least we know where the budget is going on the 100,000 inspectors needed to check all this.

I really have no idea how the quantify it, what happens in 2018 when the cows eat the grass as fast as it comes or 2020 where u need to clean a ditch in a hurry as it’s blocked etc

I have a lot of voluntary buffer zones but one is a bit muddy at the mo as I have to use it to get to another field etc
 

DRC

Member
"During the pilot, we will also be considering the role accreditation schemes could play in supporting the delivery of environmental benefits we want to achieve."
- Red Tractor to be doing annual inspections of the schemes? Could be a deal breaker! Seems RT have already reserved places for their snouts in the trough, wonder how they managed that *cough* NFU
Does that mean if you want to be in the pilot you will have to be red tractor assured
 

delilah

Member
@Clive time to speed dial the Defra people you had on here and ask them what happened to the simple schemes( not needing £5k spent on consultants that George Useless said we all spend)
Id suggest anyone thinking of this ,would be better off getting onto one of the wildlife offers or mid tier pronto.

From the arable soil section I would say that @Clive wrote this.
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
There's a section on the importance of 'land management plans,' which will record the land's starting condition and the plan to manage it. It says the plans could be published to demonstrate where public money has gone and aid 'local awareness and engagement.'
Anyone want to have their stewardship agreements published online so the local badger worriers can pore over every detail and conduct their own regular, unofficial 'audits,' the results of which would no doubt be posted on their social media accounts so the poor farmer can be attacked by a mob of keyboard eco warriors?

Amateur clipboards measuring your grass. Just gets worse.v
 

Overby

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South West
Payment rates will hopefully be higher in the real scheme as this is obviously running alongside the (declining) BPS? Once no BPS rates will be finalised. Have I read that right?
 

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

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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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