From David Middleditch of ADAS
Q: I was considering entering my farm into an ELS agreement, but with grain prices the highest they have been for years and with set-aside reduced to 0%, is this still a financially viable option?
A: Despite what you might read in the agricultural press, good environmental standards – as promoted by Environmental Stewardship – can work alongside a profitable farming enterprise.
The wide range of over 50 environmental management options covered by Entry Level Stewardship means that most farmers can accrue sufficient numbers of points (30 points per hectare) without inclusion of land which was previously down to set-aside. In addition, several of the ELS options carry little additional financial cost, as they may well have been activities already carried out on your farm.
The rather negative comments regarding ELS may well be because farmers have not looked too carefully at the figures. An ADAS business advisor colleague provided me with some interesting ballpark figures which clearly show that ELS is financially sound.
To summarise. On a 200ha dairy farm, £6,000 of stewardship money is available provided 6,000 points can be collected. Assuming 160ha of grass and 40ha of cereals/maize (using a grain price of £150/tonne) and the farmer selects the most popular options e.g. hedgerow, ditch and maize management, the farm will suffer no significant income loss. There would be a small increase in hedgerow management costs, yet the overall figures show a net gain of around £5,000.
A similar sized arable farm with 170ha of cereals and 30ha of grass selecting the most popular options would lose about £4,500 of income by introducing 4m field margins alongside streams and ditches. Taking into account the extra costs of establishing and maintaining the margins and managing the ELS agreement along with reduction in other associated costs, there would still be a net gain from the ELS agreement of just over £2,600.
Launched in March 2005, and run by Natural England, Environmental Stewardship aims to enable farmers in England to secure regular payments for undertaking simple environmental protection and enhancement work on their land. Defra has recently reconfirmed their long-term support of the Environmental Stewardship Scheme. Any agreement entered into runs for a guaranteed five years. It would be a wise farmer who could predict that grain prices remain at their current levels throughout this time frame.