CAB14: Low input harvested cereal crops

This action is part of Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT). You must read the CSHT guidance before you apply.

Duration

5 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 eligible land that’s located below the moorland line.

Eligible land

You can do this action on land that’s:

• an eligible land type
• registered with an eligible land cover on your digital maps
• declared with a land use code which is compatible with the eligible land cover

Available area you can enter into this action

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

Rotational or static action

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

• move the action every year
• keep it at the same location each year

What to do

Your Natural England adviser will assess your land. They’ll work with you to adapt and agree the activities you must do to achieve this action’s aim. All mandatory activities will be set out in your agreement document.

To get paid for this action, you must:

• establish a cereal crop (not maize) as agreed with your Natural England adviser
• make sure each strip or plot of seed is at least 6m wide
• create an open structure by managing the crop as agreed with your Natural England adviser

You must not:

• apply insecticides after mid-March each year
• harvest the crop before a date agreed with your adviser (usually around the middle of July)

You must also not apply herbicides, apart from those containing:

• 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.

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

When to do it

You must do this action each year of its duration.

Evidence to keep

You must keep evidence to show what you have done to complete this action. If it’s not clear that you have done this action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve its aim, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) may ask for this evidence.

You must supply the evidence if they ask for it, including:

• field operations at a land parcel level
• associated invoices
• photographs

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.

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

• CSHT actions: CWT3, CHRW4
• SFI 2024 actions: CHRW1, CHRW2, CHRW3, BND1, BND2, WBD10
• SFI 2023 actions: HRW1, HRW2, HRW3
• CS option BE3 (management of hedgerows)

Consents, permissions and licensing requirements

To apply for this action, you’ll need:

• Scheduled Monument Consent from Historic England for any work on scheduled monuments
• consent from Natural England for any activity on land designated as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI)

You may need to:

• agree an implementation plan or feasibility study with your Natural England adviser
• get advice from your Natural England adviser if you have other historic or archaeological features on your agreement land
• get a wildlife licence from Natural England if your activities affect a protected species or their habitat

All historic and archaeological features (including scheduled monuments) are identified in your Historic Environment Farm Environment Record (HEFER).

If you’re a tenant, it’s your responsibility to check whether your tenancy agreement allows you to complete what’s required in the actions you choose. You may need your landlord’s consent.

Capital grants to support this action

If you need to complete an implementation plan or a feasibility study before you apply, you can apply for capital grants plans funding.

You can also apply for capital items to help you achieve the action’s aims. Your Natural England adviser will discuss eligible capital items with you.

Advice to help you do this action

The following optional advice may help you to do this action. Your agreement document will set out all the activities you must do.

Choosing the right location

You can establish low input harvested cereal on a range of soil types.

To maximise the benefits for wildlife, choose sites that are:

• close to complementary habitats such as cultivated areas for arable plants, flower-rich margins, hedgerows, scrub and winter bird food to provide food and shelter all year round (including nesting opportunities)
• in fields known to that support declining arable plants such as corn spurrey and pheasant’s eye
• in fields known to support or ground-nesting birds such as skylark

Plot size, shape and distribution

You can deliver low input harvested cereal as a part or whole-field action.

Distributing multiple areas of low input harvested cereal across your farm can help farmland birds and other wildlife:

• find food and shelter
• move more easily and safely between complementary habitats (such as hedgerows, ponds and field margins)

Very small, isolated areas of low input harvested cereal are typically provide less benefits for wildlife.

Sowing cereal crops

You can sow both single and blends of the following cereal crops:

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

Spring barley crops grown with limited herbicide are typically best for wildlife providing more space for invertebrates, farmland birds and mammals to forage and breed. This will also help rare arable plants to grow.

Sowing companion crops

You can establish companion crops within low input harvested cereal to deliver valuable flower and insect-rich foraging habitat for invertebrates, farmland birds and small mammals.

Fast-growing companion crops can in some cases result in fewer opportunities for:

• ground nesting birds such as skylark by reducing the availability of bare ground and short vegetation during the spring and summer breeding season prior to harvest
• rare arable plants to find space to germinate, flower and set seed

When to sow

Aim to sow low input harvested cereal by the end of April. This will help maximise benefits for wildlife such as ground-nesting birds, invertebrates and declining arable plants.

How to sow

To create an open structured crop suitable for ground-nesting birds, invertebrates and declining arable plants, you are advised to do all or some of the following:

• use a seed rate that is reduced to 100 kg/ha by weight or 60% of the normal seed rate (whichever is lower)
• use less nitrogen fertiliser – up to a maximum of 100kg of available N supplied by organic and inorganic fertilisers
• sow your crop on a wider row spacing (20 to 25cm)

Managing low input harvested cereal

To manage problem weeds, you can use cultural (non-chemical) or chemical methods of control such as:

• hand rogueing (pulling)
• permitted herbicides

When using any permitted herbicides, you must check if they’re legally approved. You need to also check if they’re safe to use on companion crops (such as crimson clover, field bean, lupin, pea and white clover) sown with the whole crop cereal. Always get professional advice from a BASIS-qualified agronomist when considering using herbicides within whole crop cereal containing a diverse mix of crops.

To minimise disturbance to ground-nesting birds such as skylark, avoid mechanical weeding between May and harvest. This will also allow arable plants to flower and set seed.

There are no restrictions on the use of fungicides for disease management within this action.

Getting extra funding

With approval from Natural England, you can sometimes use the CSP9: Support for threatened species supplement with this action to cover additional costs. These are costs you may incur when establishing or managing areas of low input harvested cereal crop for priority species. [CSHT]: Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier  [ha]: hectare  [RPA]: Rural Payments Agency  [SFI]: Sustainable Farming Incentive  [CS]: Countryside Stewardship  [ES]: Environmental Stewardship  [SSSI]: Site of Special Scientific Interest  [HEFER]: Historic Environment Farm Environment Record