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Mon 23 March 2020
Countryside stewardship pays farmers and landowners incentives for improving and maintaining environmental goods around the farm. This includes, but is not limited to; margins, hedgerow management, cover crops, taking small areas out of management, low input grassland etc. A lot of the options are easy to slot into existing farm systems or may already be in place now.
There are different types of agreements:
- Mid-Tier
o Mid-Tier offers a range of land options which can be selected alongside capital items.
Farms within high priority water quality areas can apply for water capital items to improve water quality such as resurfacing of gateways, roofing, livestock troughs, livestock and machinery hardcore tracks etc.
- Wildlife offers
o This package is a simplified version of mid-tier and can be applied for online. There are a range of offers to choose from (arable, lowland grazing, mixed farming, and upland), each of which only have a select few land options to choose from. There are no capital items included with these applications.
With Basic Payment Scheme payments reducing from 2021, a countryside stewardship agreement may help to replace some of this income. The agreements are five years long and any capital items within the agreement must be carried out in the first two years. Agreements applied for this year will commence on 1st January 2021.
Countryside Stewardship is now open to applicants. An application pack must be requested by 30th June and the application deadline is 31st July.
With Andrew Granger & Co’s clients having successful applications in 2019 we are here happy to assist you with Countryside Stewardship applications in 2020. Get in touch with our rural department for more information.
The Andrew Granger & Co Rural Team can be contacted on 01509 243720.
