What the action involves
This action’s aim is that there’s an open-structured, spring cereal crop which:
- is growing in strips or plots
- remains unharvested during the summer, autumn and winter months
The purpose of this is to:
- provide a summer food source for farmland birds and insects
- help establish a diverse range of arable plants and other broad-leaved plants
- provide a habitat that’s present over the winter for insects and food for seed-eating farmland birds
What you must do
Your Natural England adviser will assess your land. They’ll work with you to adapt and agree the activities you must do to achieve this action’s aim. All mandatory activities will be set out in your agreement document.
To get paid for this action, you must:
- establish and retain a cereal crop (not maize) as agreed with your Natural England adviser
- make sure each strip or plot of seed is at least 6m wide
- create an open structure by managing the crop as agreed with your Natural England adviser
- retain the unharvested headland until a time agreed with your adviser (usually around the middle of February)
You must not:
- apply fertilisers, manures or lime
- apply insecticides after mid-March each year
You must also not apply herbicides, apart from those containing:
- amidosulfuron
- clodinafop-propargyl
- fenoxaprop-P-ethyl
- pinoxaden
- tri-allate
It may not be possible for you to use these permitted active ingredients on all crops. It’s your responsibility to confirm whether herbicides are approved for use on the affected crop.
In the final year of this action’s duration, you must do this action until the end of the winter months or this action’s end date, whichever is earlier.
When to do it
You must do this action each year of its duration.
It counts toward the 25% limit
This action has a 25% limit on the amount of land that can be entered into a CSHT agreement. The limit will apply to the area of land with limited area actions in CSHT and SFI agreements added together. For example, if you have 10% of land in an SFI limited area action, you can only have 15% of land in a CSHT limited area action.
Read section 3.4: ‘Actions with a limited area’ in the CSHT applicant’s guide for more information.
Evidence to keep
You must keep evidence to show what you have done to complete this action. If it’s not clear that you have done this action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve its aim, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) may ask for this evidence.
You must supply the evidence if they ask for it, including:
- field operations at a land parcel level
- associated invoices
- photographs
The same action appears in the other schemes under a different code. The work is broadly the same; the rate and the length of the commitment are not.
- SFI26 — AHW9: £1,072 per hectare per year, over 3 years
- SFI26 pays the same rate and commits you for 3 years rather than 5.
Where you can do it
You can do this action on eligible land that’s located below the moorland line.
Eligible land
You can do this action on land that’s:
- an eligible land type
- registered with an eligible land cover on your digital maps
- declared with a land use code which is compatible with the eligible land cover
Available area
Total or part of the available area in the land parcel.
Rotational or static
This action can be rotational or static. This means you can either:
- move the action every year
- keep it at the same location each year
Consents and permissions
To apply for this action, you’ll need:
- Scheduled Monument consent from Historic England for any work on scheduled monuments
- consent from Natural England for any activity on land designated as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI)
You may need to:
- agree an implementation plan or feasibility study with your Natural England adviser
- get advice from your Natural England adviser if you have other historic or archaeological features on your agreement land
- get a wildlife licence from Natural England if your activities affect a protected species or their habitat
All historic and archaeological features (including scheduled monuments) are identified in your Historic Environment Farm Environment Record (HEFER).
If you’re a tenant, it’s your responsibility to check whether your tenancy agreement allows you to complete what’s required in the actions you choose. You may need your landlord’s consent.
Capital grants that support it
If you need to complete an implementation plan or a feasibility study before you apply, you can apply for capital grants plans funding.
You can also apply for capital items to help you achieve the action’s aims. Your Natural England adviser will discuss eligible capital items with you.
