Whole Farm Countryside Stewardship

[wurzell1976]

Has anyone heard of anyone, or been tempted themselves to put their whole farm into a countryside stewardship mid tier scheme? Is it even possible?

Just planning a scheme at the moment.This will be on a new farm,where i will be no-till and using mid tier rotational options to start improving soil conditions/health and reduce run off.Less productive areas ie under trees, corners and north side of larger hedges will have plots and margins.Just about each field will be included in the scheme one way or another.

 

[wurzell1976]

I agree ,in my position it should spread my risk and my time.Hopefully i will have less need for my crystal ball.

Yes. Virtually all of mine is in CS Higher Tier. It was the only way to unlock options I'm already doing like overwintered stubbles and cover crops. I left out some of the permanent pasture as it was more cost than benefit. Reduced cultivation depth on fields with archaeology? No brainer when you're already direct drilling. Lots of capital works for fencing, hedge laying & water pipes. Scrub clearance on SSSIs? Cheers. Unproductive field corners into nectar flower plots? Nice. AB9 winter seed plots? They hold game birds pretty well.

The seeds mixtures are expensive but after year 1-2 when the management requirements drop the last few years are all rolling the cash back in. Net Profit? I doubt it but I've been able to adjust fixed costs to compensate for the loss of land no longer cropped - this might affect those without scale to dilute overheads. I have one less tractor on the balance sheet with all the land not farmed. Loss forgone on the bad bits of land? Definitely. Environmental features in government statistics - good.

He who pays the piper also gets to call the tune. What are you all doing with those marginal pieces of land you're only getting BPS on?

 

[FG.]

Finished 2 runs of els a few yrs ago and having another look.
Not whole farm as got too many other things going on, but a good chunk of poorish/unmowable grass back into Low input and 3 fields of arable into a split of Bird feeding (ab9+12) and gs4 for some cow grub.
I just need to reduce my summer workload/weather risk.
Only downside is hedges are included in all the schemes.
I have hedges on every boundary of every field.
My father had them at 1 pass height, I've got them at 1.5-2 pass, as fealt it more Bird friendly and look nicer.
I just hope their not going to get out of hand