CAHL2: Winter bird food on arable and horticultural land

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

£853 per hectare (ha) per year

Action’s aim

This action’s aim is that there’s an established winter bird food mix growing in blocks or strips, with plants that:

• grow and flower during the spring and summer months
• set seed to produce a supply of small seeds from late autumn until late winter

The purpose of this is to:

• provide food resources for smaller farmland birds, especially in late autumn and winter
• encourage flowering plants in the summer, which will benefit insects including bumblebees, solitary bees, butterflies and hoverflies
• support an integrated pest management approach if located close to cropped areas

Where you can do this action

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

• an eligible land type (as defined in section 5.1 ‘Eligible land types for SFI’ in the SFI scheme information)
• registered with an eligible land cover on your digital maps
• declared with a land use code which is compatible with the eligible land cover

This is a ‘limited area’ action. The total eligible area you enter into any combination of one or more of the ‘limited area’ actions must not be more than 25% of the total agricultural area of your farm. Read section 1.3 ‘SFI actions with a limited area’ in the SFI scheme information) for more details (including a list of ‘limited area’ actions).

Eligible land

Eligibility of protected land

Available area you can enter into this action

Part of the available area in a land parcel.

Rotational or static action

This action is rotational or static. 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 a winter bird food mix as a block or strip on land entered into this action.

You must use a seed mix which includes at least 6 small seed-bearing crops, which are suitable for smaller farmland bird species. The mix must not include:

• artichokes
• reed canary grass
• giant and intermediate sorghum
• maize
• miscanthus
• sweet clover
• tic beans

If you sow an annual mix, it can include a range of cereals, brassicas or other small-seeded crops. If you sow a 2-year mix, it can also include biennial crops such as kale, stubble turnip or teasel.

Once the winter bird food mix block or strip 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.

You must re-establish a 1-year mix annually and 2-year mixes every other year, so they continue to produce an extended supply of small seeds. This can be at the same location or a different location.

You must not use the winter bird food mix block or strip for regular vehicular access, turning or storage (for example, storing bales or machinery).

You can maintain an existing winter bird food mix block or strip 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 Countryside Stewardship (CS) option AB9 (winter bird food)

When to do it

You must:

• establish the winter bird food mix block or strip in time for it to flower in the first summer after sowing (usually this means by the end of June)
• maintain the mix at the same location until late winter (usually around the end of February) in the year after it was sown (for 1-year mixes) or the following year (for 2-year mixes)

If this action’s start date means it’s too late to establish the winter bird food mix, you must establish it within 12 months of your action’s start date.

If you establish the winter bird food mix block or strip after the end of June, you must maintain it at the same location for 2 consecutive winters in order to achieve this action’s aim.

In the final year of this action’s duration, you must do this action either until late winter, 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, including details of the seed mix used
• 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.

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 apply for one of the following supplemental actions if CAHL2 (or AHL2 in the SFI23 offer) is included in your agreement:

• AHW2: Supplementary winter bird food
• OFA3: Supplementary winter bird food (organic)

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 seed mix

This action explains (under ‘What to do’):

• the minimum requirement for small seed-bearing crops in the seed mix
• which crops you must not use in the seed mix
• you can use an annual mix or 2-year mix – both provide food for a range of farmland birds, such as finches, buntings, sparrows and partridges

Cereal crops you could use include:

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

Brassica crops you could use include:

• fodder radish
• forage rape
• gold of pleasure
• kale
• mustard
• stubble turnip

Your seed supplier can help you choose a seed mix that’s the best match for your land and local conditions.

Where to sow the seed mix

When you establish the winter bird food mix, by law you cannot cultivate or apply fertilisers or pesticides to land within 2m of the centre of a hedgerow. Read the guidance on Hedgerow management rules; buffer strips to understand how these rules apply to you.

It will usually help if you sow the winter bird food mix block or strips on sites that:

• receive plenty of sunlight, to help the plants establish
• are weed-free, as a high weed burden will affect crop establishment
• are close to nesting, roosting and other farmland bird feeding habitats, where possible
• are next to a field edge, but they can extend into the field
• are away from buildings to reduce the risk of vermin

You can choose to locate the winter bird food mix blocks or strips to square up cultivated areas which could help to speed up farm operations.

You can use larger blocks or strips (between around 0.4 hectares (ha) and 5ha) to:

• allow more seeds to remain undiscovered for longer
• extend the area’s value well into winter.

How and when to sow the seed mix

Your seed supplier can advise you on an overall sowing rate for the seed mix you choose.

It will usually help the seeds to germinate if you sow the seed mix:

• into a seedbed that’s firm, consolidated, fine, level and weed free
• when the weather and soil moisture is suitable for the crops in your seed mix – this will usually be between March and June (depending on the crops in your mix)

You can either:

• broadcast the seeds onto the surface of the seedbed to help germination
• shallow-drill the seeds up to a depth of 1 centimetre (cm) – small seeds usually struggle to germinate when sown deeper than 1cm

After you have sown the seed mix, you can roll the seeds (if the soil is dry enough) to improve:

• seed-to-soil contact
• retain moisture
• reduce the risk of slug damage

Managing the winter bird food blocks or strips during establishment

Around 4 weeks after sowing, it’s advisable to check the block or strip for germination. If establishment is poor, you may need to re-sow part or all the block or strip. Your seed supplier can help you if you’re unsure what to do.

Maintaining established blocks or strips

Once the block or strip is established, this action requires you to to maintain it by managing it in a way that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim.

To help you achieve the action’s aim, you may need to do the following, as necessary:

• re-sow the area, so it continues to produce an extended supply of small seeds – an annual mix will need to be re-sown every year and 2-year mixes every other year
• apply fertiliser, so the crops grow sufficiently to smother annual weeds and produce a supply of small seeds from late autumn until late winter (usually around mid-February)
• control pests, such as flea beetle, slugs, rabbits, corvids and pigeons
• control weeds where a high weed burden may cause poor seed production of the sown crops – to avoid damaging the sown crops, you can apply herbicides or remove the weeds by hand

[SFI]: Sustainable Farming Incentive [SSSIs]: sites of special scientific interest [SSSI]: site of special scientific interest [HEFER]: Historic Environment Farm Environment Record [CS]: Countryside Stewardship [ES]: Environmental Stewardship