WBD5: Manage intensive grassland adjacent to a watercourse

This action’s aim is that there’s a dense and diverse grass sward throughout the year which:

• is on land at risk of erosion or surface runoff that’s adjacent to a watercourse, or that creates a buffer to a sensitive habitat
• has a range of heights during the autumn and winter months
• has minimal bare ground, so the soil is covered by vegetation and is not directly exposed to the elements
• has low fertiliser inputs

The purpose of this is to:

• reduce soil compaction
• reduce surface runoff and risk of diffuse pollution to the watercourse
• help to reduce the risk of flooding

What you must do

You must:

• establish a diverse grass sward on land entered into this action
• use a seed mix which includes at least 5 grass species

Once the grass sward is established, you must maintain it. To do this, you must manage it in a way that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim. This includes:

• making sure there’s an intact sward throughout the year, with minimal bare ground
• grazing during the spring or summer months, or both seasons
• cutting the sward in late summer, after the bird breeding season, with cuttings removed

You must not do the following on the grass sward:

• graze it with livestock during the autumn and winter months (usually from early October until mid-March)
• apply pesticides, except for herbicides to weed wipe or spot treat to control injurious weeds, invasive non-native species, or nettles
• apply any fertilisers or manures from late summer until mid-winter (usually from mid-August until the end of January) – this is to reduce the risk of runoff
• apply any livestock manures with 100 kilograms (kg) or more of total nitrogen per ha per year
• where you do not use livestock manures, apply nitrogen fertiliser to supply 50kg or more per ha of total nitrogen per year
• supplementary feed, except for non-energy based mineral blocks

You can maintain an existing grass sward 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 CS option SW8 (management of intensive grassland adjacent to a watercourse)

How to do this action

It’s up to you how you do this action, as long as you:

• follow this action’s requirements – these are identified by a ‘must’
• do the action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim

You may find it helpful to read the ‘advice to help you do this action’, but it’s not part of this action’s requirements.

When to do it

If you’re establishing a new grass sward to meet this action, you must:

• sow the mix by early autumn, within 12 months of this action’s start date
• maintain the mix at the same location until this action’s end date

If you’re maintaining an existing grass sward to meet this action, you must do this until this action’s end date.

Evidence to keep

You must keep written evidence that land entered into this action is either:

• at risk of soil erosion or surface runoff - you can use the soil management plan produced for CSAM1 or SAM1 to identify this
• important for creating a buffer to sensitive habitats

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

• field operations at a land parcel level and associated invoices, including details of the seed mix used
• stocking records to show grazing activity at a land parcel level
• input records of nitrogen application
• photographs and 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 this evidence if we ask for it.

Other actions or options you can do on the same area as this action You can do the following actions or options on the same area in a land parcel as this action.

Some actions or options can only be done on the same area if they’re done at a different time of year to this action. For example, winter cover followed by a summer companion crop. Read ‘What to do’ and ‘When to do it’ to find out when this action must be done.

Scheme Action or option codes OFC1, OFM1, AGF1, AGF2, PRF1, PRF2, CIPM1, CNUM1, SFI 2024 actions CSAM1

SFI 2023 actions IPM1, NUM1, SAM1

CS options OR1, OT1

ES options No ES revenue options

SFI pilot No area-based SFI pilot standards standards

If an action or option cannot be located on the same area, you may be able to do it on a different area in the same land parcel. Read section 6. ‘Eligible land in other funding schemes’ in the SFI scheme information for more details.

You can do supplemental action WB9 (nil fertiliser supplement) on land entered into this action.

You can do the following actions or options on the eligible boundaries of a land parcel entered into this action:

• SFI 2024 actions: CHRW1, CHRW2, CHRW3, BND1, BND2 and WBD2
• SFI 2023 actions: HRW1, HRW2, HRW3

• CS option BE3 (management of hedgerows)
• the introductory level of the SFI pilot hedgerows standard