Down on the Farm - Points Mean Prizes
AT THIS PRESENT TIME the farming industry as a whole seems to be drowning in paperwork and we are no exception, due in part to two environmental schemes that we are personally taking part in, one compulsory the other voluntary.
As a farming and land related business we have always been acutely aware of our environmental responsibilities, as you have read in previous issues. The two new schemes we are embarking on should in time benefit both the farm and the environment quite considerably.
The first, and compulsory scheme, is called Cross Compliance. This will have to be undertaken by all farmers and landowners in the UK and is linked to the new Single Farm Payment. There are conditions which need to be closely followed to qualify, such as leaving uncultivated margins round each field and not allowing soil erosion of any description i.e. not allowing too much mud to build up around cattle ring feeders in fields or if the cattle drink from a river ensuring that bank erosion is kept to a minimum. These are just a couple of examples from the compulsory scheme but there are countless others!
The second, and in my opinion more interesting, scheme is the Entry Level Scheme (ELS). It is voluntary and for this the farmer has to accumulate points - and as we all know "points mean prizes". To obtain the "prize" we have to accrue 30 points per hectare of land farmed. To gain the points there are numerous options we can take up, for example hedge maintenance. We are not allowed to cut hedges between 1stMarch and 31st July, except when safety may be compromised as in the case of road junctions or field entrances. This will then allow birds to nest without fear of cutting machinery and we gain 22 points per 100m for leaving both sides untouched and 11 points for one side with the further provision that it can only be carried out once every two calendar years.
Additionally, in these field boundary schemes, there are ditch management options, which for us down on the Fen is a large consideration. Once again, wildlife is the main consideration with nesting birds and small mammals such as water voles. Cutting and cleaning of the ditches can only be done at certain times and with different degrees of cutting such as half or whole resulting in different point totals.
Fertilisers and manures must also be kept at least 2m away from the top of the ditch bank. We have chosen to increase this margin to 6m to incorporate requirements from Cross Compliance and ELS which all adds up to give us 400 points per hectare!!! This 6m margin will now also give us a safe margin when we spray near watercourses, which in turn keeps the Environment Agency happy and our Grain Assured Scheme Inspector.
Another option that we have taken up is to plant wild bird seed mixes in field corner and other "hard to farm" areas. We will have to manage these so the more robust and competitive weeds to not swamp the young seedlings, but given good weather conditions and favourable growing conditions the birds will benefit in the long term.
To accomplish all this I have to measure every single field in the scheme on foot and make all the necessary calculations along with numerous other tasks which is time consuming and at times tedious, but given time this effort will lead to a much better environment for all concerned. For this second scheme we are rewarded to the tune of £30 per hectare provided that we accumulate a total of 25,830 points. However, by the time we have measured the areas, established all of the grass margins etc I suspect we will be out of pocket, but it will make us feel good and it recognises the fact that we need to look after and nurture what is around us for the future.
On the farm people have had time off for holidays and we are now just starting to gear up for the first busy period of the year, fertilising the oilseed rape followed by drilling the linseed. We have increased the acreage for the latter as we will not be growing any peas this year as the costing for this has now reached the stage where there is no point growing it any more. Unfortunately other crops seem to be heading in the same direction...