UP1: Enclosed rough grazing

How much will be paid

£53 per hectare (ha)

Where to use this option

Available for Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier and Higher Tier on whole parcels:

• Only on land above the moorland line within severely disadvantaged areas (SDA). Parcels must be less than 25ha in area and must be enclosed
• When this option is targeted at ground nesting birds, parcels must have scrub cover of less than 1% of the area
• Only on land containing extensive areas of moorland vegetation, but the parcel does not meet moorland priority habitat status

Features that can be included in this option

The following features can be included if they’re part of the land, even if they are ineligible for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS).

• Bracken
• Ditches
• Dykes
• Scrub including gorse bushes and briar
• Scree, rock, outcrops or boulders
• Streams less than 4m wide and that take up less than 1 ha of the parcel

Related Mid Tier options

The following options and supplements can be located on the same area as this option.

• HS4 – Scrub control on historic and archaeological features
• OT6 – Organic land management - enclosed rough grazing

How this option will benefit the environment

It maintains and enhances areas of enclosed rough grazing land within an upland farming system. This land contains extensive areas of moorland vegetation but it does not meet moorland priority habitat status over the majority of the parcel.

This habitat will benefit moorland birds such as short-eared owl and ring ouzel and provide improved breeding and feeding habitat for birds such as golden plover and redshank.

Aims

If you’re selected for a site visit, we will check that delivery of the aims is being met and the prohibited activities have not been carried out. This will ensure the environmental benefits are being delivered.

During the spring and summer there will be a mosaic of upland rough grazing habitats with diverse sward heights and low/contained levels of bracken, gorse and scrub.

By autumn, the sward will have a varied sward height with tussocks of grass, and some grasses and wildflowers will be allowed to go to seed.

Management will ensure that cover of soft and hard rush is no more than 20%.

Any archaeological or historic features will be protected under a grass cover, with no increase in scrub or bracken cover, no bare ground present, and no damage incurred as a result of machinery use.

Prohibited activities

To achieve the aims and deliver the environmental benefits across the whole parcel, do not carry out any of the following activities:

• Operate machinery or carry out other activities during the bird breeding season, that may disturb breeding birds or damage nests
• Use pesticides, except for herbicides to spot-treat or weed-wipe for the control of injurious weeds, invasive non-natives, nettles and bracken
• Apply any lime, fertilisers or manures
• Supplementary feed except for mineral blocks
• Cut rushes between 15 March and 31 July
• Cut more than half of the scrub in any year, except on historic and archaeological features
• Use herbicides on ferns other than bracken
• Plough, cultivate or re-seed
• Carry out any drainage works, including modifying existing drainage, unless the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has given written permission before work takes place

On your annual claim you will be asked to declare that you have not carried out any prohibited activities.

Recommended management

To assist you in achieving the aims and deliver the environmental benefits for this option, we recommend that you use best practice.

We recommend that you:

• contain bracken and common gorse so that they do not spread to new areas of land
• control common gorse by cutting or burning in blocks
• maintain dwarf shrub coverage
• maintain scrub in discrete small patches, lines and occasional individual bushes scattered across the site
• where scrub cover is less than 5%, keep the full extent of well-established scrub
• where scrub cover is more than 5%, keep scrub cover between 5% and 10% of the parcel area
• maintain a sward with a range of heights during the growing season so that at least 20% is less than 7 centimetres (cm) high and 20% is more than 7cm high. No height variation needs to be maintained when the field is closed up for a cut of hay or silage
• control dense rush by grazing or cutting every year so that stands of soft or hard rush do not cover more than 20% of the parcel area and sward heights are less than 20cm high by 30 September
• check for breeding birds before operating machinery or carrying out other activities which may disturb breeding birds or damage their nests. The breeding season tends to run from mid-March until late July, but it can start earlier and finish later, depending on the species and the weather

Keeping records

Where there is uncertainty about whether the aims of the options have been delivered, we will take into account any records or evidence you may have kept demonstrating delivery of the aims of the option. This will include any steps you’ve taken to follow the recommended management set out above. It’s your responsibility to keep such records if you want to rely on these to support your claim.

• Receipted invoices, consents or permissions connected with the work
• Records of all management activity on the option area for each parcel
• Timings of herbicide or pesticide applications along with the product used and application rate
• Burning and cutting dates and locations
• A monthly record of stock numbers grazing each parcel in this option
• Any written agreements from Natural England for drainage works

You may be asked to take and submit the following photographic records.

• A photographic record of the extent of dwarf shrub, bracken and gorse on the site

Additional guidance and advice

The following advice is helpful, but they are not requirements for this item.

Pick the right location

Suitable land includes:

• uncultivated grassland
• unimproved pasture
• allotments that have been historically set aside for the grazing of animals
• steeper or less accessible parcels not routinely used for producing forage
• seasonally wet parcels
• parcels with naturally occurring flushes or rock outcrops

These parcels tend to have unimproved soils that support semi-natural vegetation, priority habitats or species listed under the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act.

Avoid damaging historic and archaeological features as these are particularly vulnerable in historically uncultivated parcels.

Biodiversity

This option has been identified as being beneficial for biodiversity. All Countryside Stewardship habitat creation, restoration and management options are of great significance for biodiversity recovery, as are the wide range of arable options in the scheme. Capital items and supplements can support this habitat work depending on the holding’s situation and potential.

The connectivity of habitats is also very important and habitat options should be linked wherever possible. Better connectivity will allow wildlife to move/colonise freely to access water, food, shelter and breeding habitat, and will allow natural communities of both animals and plants to adapt in response to environmental and climate change.

Further information

Read Countryside Stewardship: get funding to protect and improve the land you manage to find out more information about Mid Tier and Higher Tier including how to apply. *[SDA]: severely disadvantaged areas