Subsidy Library

Find detailed information about subsidies

arrow_back Back to Subsidy Library

AHW10

Low input harvested cereal crop

SFI 2024 open_in_new View on RPA Website

£354.00

ha · year

format_list_bulleted What to do

  • Establish an autumn or spring cereal crop (not maize) in strips or plots at a reduced seed rate.
  • Undersow a seed mix into the spring cereal crop if desired.
  • Use a blend or mix of cereals.
  • Manage the cereal crop to achieve the action's aim until it is harvested.
  • Do not harvest the crop before mid-July.
  • Do not apply insecticides after mid-March until the crop is harvested.
  • Only apply herbicides with permitted active ingredients.

schedule When to do

  • Do this action each year of its 3-year duration.
  • Establish the cereal crop within 12 months of the action's start date if the start date is too late.
  • In the final year, do this action until the crop is harvested or the action's end date, whichever is earlier.

checklist How to do and evidence required

  • Field operations at a land parcel level and associated invoices.
  • Photographs or other documentation.

View Official Guidelines

Access detailed information about this action on the RPA website

open_in_new Visit RPA Website

info Additional Information

AHW10: Low input harvested cereal crop - GOV.UK

Contents

  1. Duration
  2. How much you’ll be paid
  3. Action’s aim
  4. Where you can do this action
  5. Eligible land
  6. Eligibility of protected land
  7. Available area you can enter into this action
  8. Rotational or static action
  9. What to do
  10. When to do it
  11. How to do it
  12. Evidence to keep
  13. Other actions or options you can do on the same area as this action
  14. Advice to help you do this action
  15. Choosing a cereal crop
  16. Choosing the right location
  17. How to sow the crop

This is an action in the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme: expanded offer for 2024. You must read the SFI scheme information to understand the scheme rules and how to apply.

Duration

3 years

How much you’ll be paid

£354 per hectare (ha) per year

Action’s aim

This action’s aim is that there’s a low input, open-structured cereal crop growing:

  • in strips or plots
  • during the spring and summer months until it’s harvested

The purpose of this is to:

  • enable wildflower species to grow within the crop
  • provide summer foraging sites for declining and localised farmland birds, such as yellowhammer and reed bunting
  • provide habitat for skylarks, farmland wildlife and pollinator species

Where you can do this action

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

Eligible land

  • Eligible land type: Arable land used to grow crops (not maize)
  • Eligible land cover: Arable land
  • Compatible land use code: Land use codes for arable crops or leguminous and nitrogen-fixing crops
  • Eligible land type: Temporary grassland
  • Eligible land cover: Arable land
  • Compatible land use code: TG01
  • Eligible land type: Arable land lying fallow
  • Eligible land cover: Arable land
  • Compatible land use code: FA01

Eligibility of protected land

  • Protected land: Sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs)
  • Eligibility: Eligible – you must get SSSI consent before you do this action (read section 10.3 ‘SSSI consent’ in the SFI scheme information to find out how to do this)
  • Protected land: Historic and archaeological features
  • Eligibility: Eligible – you must get a SFI HEFER before you do this action (read section 5.6 ‘Land with historic or archaeological features’ in the SFI scheme information to find out how to do this)

Available area you can enter into this action

Total or part of the available area in a land parcel.

Rotational or static action

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

What to do

You must establish an autumn or spring cereal crop (not maize):

  • in strips or plots
  • 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 is established, you must manage it in a way that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim until it’s harvested.

You must not:

  • harvest the crop before it can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim (usually not before around mid-July)
  • apply insecticides after around mid-March, until the crop is harvested

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 cereal crop 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 Countryside Stewardship (CS) option AB14 (harvested low input cereal)

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 this action until the crop is harvested or this action’s end date, whichever is earlier.

How to do it

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.

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.

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: SFI 2024 actions
  • Action or option codes: AHW6, OFA1, OFC3, OFM4, AGF1, AGF2, PRF1, PRF2, PRF3, PRF4, SOH1, CIPM1, CNUM1, CSAM1, CSAM2
  • Scheme: SFI 2023 actions
  • Action or option codes: IPM1, NUM1, SAM1, SAM2
  • Scheme: CS options
  • Action or option codes: AB2, AB5, AB6, AB9, HS3, HS9, SW6, OP1, OR3, OT3
  • Scheme: ES options
  • Action or option codes: No ES revenue options
  • Scheme: SFI pilot standards
  • Action or option codes: No area-based SFI pilot 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 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

Advice to help you do this action

The following advice may help you to do this action, but it’s not part of this action’s requirements.

Choosing a cereal crop

It’s up to you which cereal crop (not maize) to use for this action.

If you’re undersowing a seed mix into the spring cereal crop, you can sow it either:

  • at the same time as the spring cereal crop, using a mix of cereal and companion crops (including pulse crops, such as field beans, lupins and combining peas)
  • as a separate pass into the spring cereal crop

Undersowing the spring cereal crop with a flowering companion crop mix can provide flower and insect-rich foraging habitat for farmland birds and pollinator species.

If you’re using a blend or mix of cereals, it can include crops such as:

  • barley
  • oats
  • red millet
  • rye
  • triticale
  • wheat
  • white millet

Choosing the right location

The best sites are those with low levels of pernicious weeds such as:

  • blackgrass
  • couch
  • brome
  • ryegrass
  • wild oats

How to sow the crop

To help you achieve this action’s aim, you can sow your cereal crop strips or plots at a seed rate that’s either:

  • around 50% to 60% of the normal seed rate
  • to a maximum of around 100 kilograms (kg) per hectare (ha) – for barley, oats, rye, triticale and wheat it’s usually between 70kg and 100kg per ha; for red and white millet crops it’s usually between 10kg and 15kg per ha

It may also help if you sow your crop with wider spacing (for example, between 20cm and 25cm) between the rows.

To minimise damage to plants and wildlife you can:

  • avoid carrying out in-crop mechanical activities between May and harvest
  • sow your crop by the end of April, where possible

Published 21 May 2024 Last updated 15 August 2024 + show all updates

  1. 13 August 2024

SOH4 removed from SFI 2024 actions.

  1. 2 August 2024

Where you can do this action - an eligible land type is defined in section 5.1 ‘Eligible land types for SFI’ in the SFI scheme information. Eligible land - added ‘not maize’ to eligible land types. Eligibility of protected land - updated link to section 10.3 ‘SSSI consent’ in the SFI scheme information. What to do - replaced ‘sow’ with ‘establish’. Published voluntary advice to help you do this action, but it's not part of this action’s requirements.

  1. 21 May 2024

First published.