This action’s aim is that there’s an open-structured, spring cereal crop which:
- is growing in strips or plots on the headland of the land parcel
- 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 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
You must establish a spring cereal crop (not maize) in strips or plots on the headland. The strips or plots must not be more than around 24 metres wide.
You must sow the cereal crop at a seed rate that’s reduced to a level that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim.
As long as this action’s aim can reasonably be expected to be achieved, you can:
- undersow a seed mix into the spring cereal crop
- use a blend or mix of cereals
Once the cereal crop strips or plots are established, you must manage them in a way, and for a period of time, that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim. This will usually mean keeping them until around mid-February in the year after establishment.
You must not apply the following to the strips or plots:
- any fertilisers, manures or lime
- insecticides after around mid-March
You must not apply herbicides apart from those containing the following permitted active ingredients:
- 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.
You can use an existing spring cereal crop strip or 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 action or option, such as CS option AB7 (whole crop cereals)
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 cereal crop, you must establish it within 12 months of this action’s start date.
In the final year of this action’s duration, you must do the action until the end of the winter months 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:
- a ‘headland’ (the outer edges of the land parcel which are usually used to turn farm equipment during field operations, such as planting)
- 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
Rotational or static
This is a rotational or static action – 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
It counts toward the 25% limit
This is a ‘limited area’ action. The total eligible area you enter into any combination of one or more of the ‘limited area’ actions must not be more than 25% of the total agricultural area of your farm. Read section 4.5 ‘Limited area SFI actions’ in the SFI26 scheme information for more details (including a list of ‘limited area’ actions).
Evidence to keep
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.
