AHW4: Skylark plots

No substantive changes have been made to this action for SFI26 (compared with the SFI24 version). There have only been minor updates to standard wording which appears in all area-based SFI actions.

This action’s aim is that there are fallow plots for nesting skylarks within a winter cereal crop, until the crop is harvested in the summer.

The purpose of this is to provide skylarks with suitable nesting habitats in winter cereal crops throughout their breeding season.

What you must do

During the autumn and winter, you must create fallow plots within a winter cereal crop.

For each land parcel where you do this action, there must be at least 2 plots per ha of winter cereal crop you’re growing. For example, if you’re growing 5ha of winter cereal crop in a land parcel, there must be at least 10 plots.

You must make sure that the plots are large enough to meet this action’s aim. This will usually mean they need to be at least 3 metres (m) wide and around 16 square m in area.

You must retain the fallow plots until the winter cereal crop is harvested in the summer.

You must not locate the fallow plots in tramlines, boundaries or margins, as this increases risk of attacks on skylark nests by predators.

You can maintain an existing skylark plot to get paid for this action if it:

• meets this action’s requirements
• is not already being paid for under another environmental land management scheme option, such as Countryside Stewardship option AB4 (skylark plots)

When to do it

You must do this action each year of its 3-year duration.

If this action’s start date means it’s too late to establish the skylark plot, you must do this within 12 months of this action’s start date.

In the final year of this action’s duration, you must do this action until the winter cereal crop is harvested, or this action’s end date whichever is earlier.

Where you can do it

You can do this action on agricultural land located below the moorland line that’s:

• identified by you as not being at risk of soil erosion or surface runoff – you must keep evidence of this
• an eligible land type (as defined in section 5.1.1 ‘Eligible land types’ in the SFI26 scheme information)
• registered with an eligible land cover on your digital maps
• declared with a land use code which is compatible with the eligible land cover

You must not do this action on land that’s bounded by tree lines or adjacent to woods, unless the land parcel is larger than 10ha. This is because it increases the risks of predator attack.

Rotational or static

This action is rotational or static. This means you can either:

• move its location for the second and third years of this action’s duration
• do it at the same location each year of this action’s duration

Evidence to keep

You must keep written evidence that land entered into this action is not at risk of soil erosion or surface runoff. You can use the soil management plan you’ve already produced for SFI24 action CSAM1 or SFI23 action SAM1 to identify this.

You must keep evidence to show what you’ve done to complete this action, such as:

• field operations at a land parcel level and associated invoices
• photographs or other documentation

If it’s not clear that you’ve done this action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve its aim, we may ask for this evidence. You must supply the evidence if we ask for it.