Sorry about this folks but it's easier to get a straight answer from you lot than trawling through the NFU/CFE website.

What exactly are we being asked to do ?

is it just to re-join ELS with more annex 1 options

or is it to re-join ELS with more annex 1 options, leave uncropped land and enter a voluntary environmental management agreement? 

Clear and concise answers gladly received!

Hi - I'm from the NFU and part of the team that has been working up CFE and will try and help. 

Basically - the bottom line is that if you are alreday in ELS, then when ou come to renew your agreement you need to try and include some of the annex 1 options (as your correctly say) - for example, you may want to include in your agreement putting in some pollen and nectar mix (EF4) or some skylark plots (EF8) or perhaps some grass buffers alongside watercourses (EJ9).  It's up to you and wat suits your farm and agreement best..... 

However, in addition to the above, the campaign is also asking that you try and keep existing uncropped land and try and do one voluntary thing outside your formal agreement.  This is where the voluntary campaign options come in - for example, you may have a patch of land that can be put in as an uncropped cultivated margin (C8) or managed as fallow (C5). You just need to try and do what you can manage to fit with your farm.

hope this helps?

 Hi, We have a piece in the Farmers Weekly (Arable section 13 Nov) which outlines the options available. Hopefully that will give you some more idea.

Best,

Jon Riley

News Editor

Thanks Andrea, I guess the best thing to do is to wait and see what the voluntry options are.

I've never been a big fan of pollen mixtures as it doesn't seem right to burn 100s of litres of diesel ploughing up ground, working it down and establishing a flower mixture that you will plough up again in 12 months, it hardly seems environmentally friendly. As wildlife doesn't sequester carbon.

I suppose it depends on which church of environmentalism you worship at!

 as for skylarks the buzzards would probably scare them all off!!

but grass margins might be a runner.

Hi.  Valid point about you concern with the establishment of wildflower and pollen mixes - but with a good well-established and managed mix you can get a good few years out of them without having to plough up again to re-establish.

As you say, worth seeing the management descriptions for these and that's a good reason for us to  get those voluntary management prescriptions onto the website asap.

P+N needn't be expensive to establish. Used less than 20 litres of diesel to establish a 0.5 hectare plot on sandy loam soil. Ploughed, broadcast seed with slug pelleter then a shallow cultivation to cover seed. Establishment also good by cultivating stubble, spinning on and then shallow cultivation afterwards, works well if timed just before autumn rain. Mix has lasted 3 years so approx 7lts of diesel per year = £3/year(£7.50 per hectare if you like). No need to combine, spray, fertilise, use any other inputs etc. Only grass topper once/twice a year. Just sit back and watch the bees humming.  Good option for marginal areas, or to square up a field to make it easier to work for machinery. Definitely makes sense while cereal prices are low, and if they go up significantly 95% of our land can still benefit which is good enough for me. Better than getting paid peanuts for setaside.