Webinar: Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 2024 -26th Sept

[Defra Farming]

On Thursday 26th September, we’re holding a webinar for farmers to go through the guidance, actions and detail for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer. This was planned for end of May, but had to be delayed due to the general election. We apologise about that.

Farming and Countryside Programme Director, Janet Hughes will be joined by policy leads working on SFI, and colleagues from the Rural Payment Agency and Catchment Sensitive Farming.

This webinar will be delivered in collaboration with the Farming Advice Service (FAS) and The Farming Forum (TFF).

To attend the online session, simply follow the Zoom link and reserve a place. It’s free and once registered you can start asking or upvoting questions on Slido before and during the webinar. The 1.5. hour webinar will start at 2:00pm. It will be recorded so if you can’t attend, don’t worry. The video recording will be added to this thread and the webinars in 2024 page after the webinar ends.

To prepare, you might find it helpful to read the https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/20...ded-sustainable-farming-incentive-offer-2024/

Questions and Answers

As per the Q&A threads we have run before, these will run with the same aims. This thread is only for questions, all commentary will be deleted. Please read all the questions and use the upvote or downvote buttons to indicate which questions you agree with as opposed to asking the same question twice.

The thread is open for questions now and will close prior to the event. Defra are aiming to answer as many questions as possible, using the most upvoted from this thread as well as questions submitted live in the webinar. This will allow Defra to answer as many questions as possible in the session.

Register here

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[Chris F]

As always, please do keep to just asking questions. Use the upvote and downvote options to reflect other's questions you agree with.

 

[gone up the hill]

When will SFI24 be opened for general applications??

 

[Clive]

Can you have a new '24 agreement on a separate SBI with separate land parcels without affecting the % caps of an existing '23 agreement?

 

[onthehoof]

A question which came up last time - can I leave my current HLS agreement early and g into SFI

 

[devonbeef]

is there going to be any new options for non low output type small grassland livestock farms, which don,t tie us in knots with restrictions on plant species , inputs , stocking rate, breed of animal used etc , an option which allows us to keep output which as a small farm we can not lose, if to remain profitable . a farmed productively permanent pasture option.

Why are the payments for hedges so low when that is a great habitat and a way of redistributing old BPS back to the small farmer which as in my areas are the family farms with small fields and many hedges, the payments rates are so poor that they are not worth doing for the knot which we tie ourselfs up to by signing up for that option

 

[devonbeef]

is there going to be any new options for non low output type small grassland livestock farms, which don,t tie us in knots with restrictions on plant species , inputs , stocking rate, breed of animal used etc , an option which allows us to keep output which as a small farm we can not lose, if to remain profitable . a farmed productively permanent pasture option.

Why are the payments for hedges so low when that is a great habitat and a way of redistributing old BPS back to the small farmer which as in my areas are the family farms with small fields and many hedges, the payments rates are so poor that they are not worth doing for the knot which we tie ourselfs up to by signing up for that option

with reference to first point, aware and signed up for num 2 so my type of farm needs another option to stack to that to replace vital lost BPS payment

 

[Regenerator1]

When will those stuck in CS and other legacy schemes get Ministerial approval to leave them and apply for SFI? Time for levelling up of ELM's please

 

[yellow belly]

when will stewardship and sfi be combined
will we be able to close stewardship this december 2024 and start a 2024 sfi on 1 jan 2025 adopting the actions to facilitate and simplify your checking and our administration and maintain the environmental gains we have made
reducing the administration will also be an environmental gain due to increased efficency
you will need to switch off the stewardship blocks on the system to allow the replacement sfi actions
any delay between closing the stewardship and starting the sfi will result in a reduced payment and deter the switch

 

[Wolds Beef]

What payments would be available if I and my neighbour(a Wildlife Trust) wanted to restore a Chalk stream in the Lincolnshire Wolds.?
Are there any way SFi would fund this.?
WB

 

[onesiedale]

You talked about options for grassland flood plain meadows in the spring for the SFI 24, but they still haven't been offered.

Why not?
When will they be offered?
When can we apply for them?

 

[Badshot]

Why is the no till option not stackable to rotational legume fallows, either SFI23 or 24?

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Why is the no till payment not just that, a payment for not tilling?

Whether for grassland, crops or SFI, if tillage is to be avoided, should not that avoidance be rewarded, regardless of the system?

 

[Grass And Grain]

I've put my application in, chosen CNUM3 Legume Fallow for a field, commited to area etc, then at end of application I was asked to do a HEFER, and that flagged up an ancient monument type thing and says I can't have CNUM3 on that area of land.

What do I do now?

 

[Andy26]

I've put my application in, chosen CNUM3 Legume Fallow for a field, commited to area etc, then at end of application I was asked to do a HEFER, and that flagged up an ancient monument type thing and says I can't have CNUM3 on that area of land.

What do I do now?

I think you can do Num3, it just says do not plant deep rooting Legumes like Lucerne.

 

[topground]

Is the inadequate payment for any option on an all grass livestock farm wishing to maintain livestock numbers deliberately designed to reduce ruminant numbers to achieve net zero because policy makers believe the lie that ruminants are responsible for climate change?
If not why are the payments so unattractive and unworkable?

 

[CiderJan]

Devonbeef kind of said this but think it's a valid question in it's own right -

Why are hedge payments so low and can/are they likely to be increased?

We've got literally miles of Cornish hedge and it's an incredible habitat but is costly to maintain and significantly increases our costs due to the inefficiencies of small, awkward shaped fields designed 300 years ago. It seems like a whole chunk of money is being thrown at silviopasture/agroforrestry when the hedges can be improved or managed to provide these highly sought after benefits.

 

[CiderJan]

Would also like to ask when/how are the payment rates reviewed and increased?

They managed to spin it as a 10% increase in payment rates earlier this year, but that was mostly due to large increases in some very minor/specific options which a lot of farmers can't use. I doubt any farmer has actually achieved a 10% rise. The payments for the higher uptake options such as SAM3 have stayed same whilst farm input inflation has risen considerably.

SAM3 is £382/ha. The very similar GS4 was £358 in 2022 and if it kept up with farm inflation, would be more like £465 now.

 

[Regenerator1]

Would also like to ask when/how are the payment rates reviewed and increased?

They managed to spin it as a 10% increase in payment rates earlier this year, but that was mostly due to large increases in some very minor/specific options which a lot of farmers can't use. I doubt any farmer has actually achieved a 10% rise. The payments for the higher uptake options such as SAM3 have stayed same whilst farm input inflation has risen considerably.

SAM3 is £382/ha. The very similar GS4 was £358 in 2022 and if it kept up with farm inflation, would be more like £465 now.

Like you said @CiderJan .... when will they stop the SPIN... it has been going on for 4yrs now.. maybe the new leadership might stop that behaviour please? Honesty alongside good communication from DEFRA and their ministers please.. it is hard enough to plan farm business now without SPIN??

 

[Grass And Grain]

If we have say 10 ha of rotational options on our 100 ha farm, for a 3 year SFI agreement, and then I want to install solar panels on 30 ha. Is this permissible?

i.e. locate the 10 ha of rotational options somewhere on the remaining 70 ha, and be allowed to panel over 30 ha without any payment clawbacks.

What about agreement level actions or things like soil management plans?

In particular, can we have an SFI agreement if a solar developer has an Option Agreement on our land which they could exercise within the 3 year SFI term, although they might not exercise the option until after the 3 year SFI term.