CAB7: Whole crop cereals

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

£596 per hectare (ha) per year

Action’s aim

This action’s aim is that:

• a spring cereal crop is harvested as whole crop silage (grain and straw together)
• the stubble is left over the autumn and winter months

The purpose is to provide:

• late summer, autumn and winter foraging sites for declining and localised farmland birds, small mammals and pollinator species such as bees and other beneficial insects
• overwinter habitat for insects and seed-eating farmland birds
• summer foraging for declining and localised farmland birds, small mammals and pollinator species such as bees and other beneficial insects

Where you can do this action

You can do this action on eligible land that’s located below the moorland line and identified by you as not being at risk of soil erosion or surface runoff – you must keep evidence of this.

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 (but not maize or sorghum) each year of your agreement during the spring season between February and April
• retain stubble from harvest until mid-February
• harvest the cereal crop as whole grain silage
• submit an annual return to confirm no stock have grazed the land

You must 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 eligible crops. It’s your responsibility to confirm whether herbicides are approved for use on the affected crop.

You must not:

• top or graze
• apply any insecticides from mid-March until the following harvest
• apply fertiliser, manures or lime to the stubble

In the final year of this action’s duration, you must do this action until the end of the winter months or this action’s 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
• grazing records
• 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

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 whole crop cereal on a range of soil types.

To maximise the benefits for wildlife, locate whole crop cereal:

• 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 support declining arable plants, such as corn spurrey, pheasant’s eye and shepherd’s needle
• in fields known to support ground-nesting birds, such as lapwing and skylark

Plot size, shape and distribution

You can deliver whole crop cereal as part or whole-field plots.

Distributing multiple, larger blocks of whole crop 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).

Small, isolated areas of whole crop cereal 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 best for wildlife providing more space for beneficial invertebrates, farmland birds and mammals to forage and breed. This will also allow rare arable plants to grow.

Barley stubble generally attracts more birds than wheat stubble (which can be very clean). Spring barley stubble is generally better than winter barley stubble.

Linseed and oilseed rape stubble can also provide a rich source of seeds and shelter. Seeds may be less available compared to cereal crop stubble, as the seeds of oilseed crops germinate more rapidly after rainfall.

Sowing companion crops

You can establish companion crops (such as a herbal ley mix) within your whole crop cereal to provide:

• late season pollen and nectar for wild pollinators
• food and shelter for farmland birds and other wildlife (such as the brown hare) over winter
• cover to reduce the risk or erosion and run-off

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
• seed-eating birds foraging within the overwinter stubble phase as sown companion crops make it harder for them to find spilt grains
• rare arable plants to find space to germinate, flower and set seed

To minimise negative outcomes for wildlife, avoid sowing companion crops:

• on more than 50% of the area of stubble in each field
• in areas of fields known to support rare arable plants

When to sow

Aim to sow the whole crop 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’ll need to do some or all of the following:

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

Managing the whole crop cereal

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

• hand rogueing (pulling)
• permitted herbicides

You need to check that any permitted herbicide you use:

• is legally approved
• is safe to use on companion crops (such as crimson clover, field bean, lupin, pea and white clover) sown with the whole crop cereal

It is advisable to get professional advice from a BASIS-qualified agronomist when considering using herbicides within whole crop cereal containing a diverse mix of crops.

To reduce 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.

Harvesting the whole crop cereal

Harvest the whole crop cereal as silage, not as mature grain and typically harvest whole crop cereals 3 to 6 weeks earlier than when you normally harvest dried grain with a combine harvester.

If your farm supports late nesting priority farmland birds such as corn bunting, delay harvest as late as possible into August.

Stubble height

Some seed-eating birds such as the yellowhammer prefer to forage in areas of open bare ground and very short vegetation that’s less than 6cm tall. They can more easily find food or see approaching danger and fly off.

Other farmland bird species such as grey partridge and skylark prefer areas of taller stubble and vegetation that’s more than 14cm tall.

Raise and lower the combine header height by 10cm to 20 cm from time to time when harvesting:

• provide the optimal range of stubble and vegetation heights
• meet the foraging and cover requirements of different bird species

Retaining overwintered stubble

Retain overwintered stubble from harvest through to mid-February. This will maximise the benefits for wildlife such as:

• seed-eating farmland birds
• invertebrates (including ground beetles and spiders)
• mammals (such as brown hares)

Seed-eating birds generally experience a glut of food in the autumn immediately after harvest. They increasingly struggle to find food during the ‘hungry gap’ – the period between stubble being cultivated and new seed sources becoming available in spring. Ideally retain stubble into March if possible.

At the end of the stubble retention period, you may need to flail areas of taller vegetation within your stubble especially where a cover crop has been sown. This will make it easier to prepare a seed bed for following crops.

Supplementary feeding

You can also carry out supplementary feeding for seed-eating farmland birds over winter. This can be especially effective where stubble is next to winter bird food plots, hedgerows and other complementary habitats.

To help birds find the spread seed, you may need to cut designated feeding areas every so often. This will help keep vegetation short (below 10cm tall) and maintain areas of bare ground.

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 whole crop cereals 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