ADAS's David Middleditch writes:

Q. As part of my ELS agreement, I have done three management plans: Soil; nutrients; and crop protection. Where do I send them now?

A. Don’t send your plans anywhere! The management plans must be kept on the farm and are intended to be working documents for you to use rather than being kept in a file at Natural England.

You will need to keep them handy to refer to when you start to implement the work you have stated you will be doing during your five-year ELS agreement.

Make sure you record any work you do, including the date on which it was carried out. This will show a visiting Rural Payments Agency (RPA) inspector that your plans are ‘live’ and that work is in progress.

It’s a good idea to review your plans every few months, particularly in the first year or two of your agreement, so that more urgent work gets done. This will help to reduce the risk of non-compliance issues.

Note that you are required to update soil and nutrient management plans (EM1 and EM2) annually. Your review should show clear progress with the work you stated you will be doing, and should also include any new work you intend to do in the light of the previous year’s experience, and any changes on the farm, such as the introduction of different crops or taking on new land.

The other two plans; manure (EM3) and crop protection (EM4) must also be updated following the instructions given for the option concerned. Refer to the ELS Handbook for details on what you should update. For example, storage assessment must be updated in EM3 (manure) if slurry or dirty water production increases.

Finally, well done for completing your plans in the first year of your ELS agreement, as required in the rules of the scheme.

FAQ 2 from David Middleditch

Q. For the overwintered stubble option, the ELS handbook states that I can’t use a pre-harvest dessicant or post-harvest herbicides. As I have a blackgrass problem in some of my fields I would like to apply for a derogation. How do I go about this?

A. Overwintered stubbles (EF6) are included in the scheme to provide an important winter food source for seed-eating birds, from spilt grain and the seeds and leaves of broad-leaved weeds. Also, weed growth increases ground cover, which helps improve soil stability through the winter – an important objective of ELS. 

This is why the use of pre- and post-harvest herbicides is not permitted. No derogations are available.

Land that has a history of problems with pernicious weeds, such as blackgrass, is probably not suitable for this option.

There are other ways that you can provide winter food for farmland birds and gain a good number of points towards the required 30 points/ha for ELS.

Consider instead EF2 (Wild bird seed mixture). This option, which attracts 450 points/ha, means sowing strips or blocks of a mixture of seed-rich plants such as kale and quinoa. Strips must be at least 6m wide, and each one mustn’t be more than 0.5ha, and no more than one strip or block per 20ha. You can move them to different locations in the same field to avoid the build-up of pests and diseases.

This option is also permitted on set-aside land, provided that you do not already have an obligation to sow green cover. See handbook for further details (ref. EF3).

Bird species that benefit from overwintered stubbles, and from the wild bird seed mixture described above, include tree sparrow, which has declined more than 80% in the past 25 years. But it’s not just birds that benefit; the plants and weeds that grow between them attract insects, such as carabid beetles and wolf spiders, which predate on crop pests.

Overwintered stubbles can follow a wide range of crops, including cereals, rape, linseed or field beans, but not maize or sugar beet.

Whilst you are not allowed to use pre or post-harvest herbicides, a light surface cultivation is allowed before the end of September. This will encourage weed germination, and also loosen any surface compaction or capping. Subsoiling of tramlines is also permitted, which will enable rainfall to infiltrate better, so reducing the risk of surface run-off.

The land must be left untouched throughout the winter until 14 February, after which you are required to establish a spring crop – it cannot be followed by set-aside.

This option is intended to form part of your rotation, so will be moved around the farm and integrated with your cropping plan. The hectarage must remain the same each year.

FAQ 3

Q. How often can I travel over buffer strips? 

A. You are not allowed to use buffer strips for regular access or turning. So, they can’t be used as a means of travelling around the farm, or for accessing fields for field work, or for operations such as grain carting. Nor can they be used as a ‘fallow headland’ for turning when doing fieldwork.

The reason for this is to allow a sward to develop that will provide new habitat for small mammals, invertebrates and birds. Also, if a thick tussocky sward develops it will help to protect habitats from field operations. This is particularly important adjacent to watercourses, which are most vulnerable to spray drift and fertilisers. The reduction of diffuse pollution is a top priority, and buffer strips are a key and very effective tool.

The only times it is acceptable to take machines onto buffer strips is for cutting, and for work on adjacent habitats, such as ditch cleaning and hedge trimming.

There is no reason why you cannot create an additional strip for farm traffic next to your buffer strips. Note that this must be between the crop and the strip, rather than between the buffer strip and the habitat it is protecting.

It is worth taking a little time to read the rules on buffer strips in the ELS handbook. Pages 50 to 55 set out the choice of widths and the rules that govern them.

Consider carefully which widths will suit your farm and the machinery you have to manage them.

You should also give careful consideration to siting of buffer strips. After the establishment year – when you can cut as frequently as you think necessary in order to get the sward well established - you are only allowed to cut the strips once over the five year life of your ELS agreement.

So, you may not wish to site this option immediately adjacent to a hedge or wood edge containing a lot of vigorously suckering blackthorn, for example. This rule applies to EE1, EE2, and EE3, but not EE4, 5 & 6 (buffer strips on intensive grassland), which may be grazed at certain times of year.

Buffer strip options need careful planning at the outset to ensure that they dovetail with any other grassy strips you already have on the farm. Most notably, you should be aware that ELS is ADDITIONAL to cross compliance requirements and public rights of way.

Also, they should not be sited next to 6 – 10m set-aside strips that have been established under your SFP entitlement, but they may be sited adjacent to set aside areas wider than 10m. They can run alongside existing 2m or 4m width Countryside Stewardship margins, but not 6m margins.

FAQ 4

Q.  ELS rules say that I am supposed to cut half the area of my pollen and nectar flower mixture just as it is starting to flower and attract breeding birds and insects in June. Can I get a derogation not to cut it?

A.  Half the area must be cut in June to stimulate some later summer flowering to prolong the availability of pollen and nectar for feeding insects, particularly butterflies and bumblebees.

Derogations are unlikely to be available. This is partly because the provision of pollen and nectar would be compromised, and partly because Defra has tried to make ELS as simple, and therefore cost-effective, as possible to administer, so that as much funding as possible goes to the farm.

I do, however, understand your concern for the wildlife that has been attracted into the area. There are a number of things you can do to reduce the risk of nesting birds and animals like hare and deer fawns being caught in the blades of the mower:

• Immediately prior to mowing, the area can be quartered by a dog to flush out game and wildlife.
  
• Reducing tractor speed will also help give wildlife time to move out of the way.
  
• A pattern of mowing from the centre of the area outwards will reduce the risk of wildlife being caught in the middle. 
  
• Setting the mower blades higher means they will pass over without harming any ground nesting birds that sit tight. For this reason ELS rules state that the June mowing should be at 20cm, while the autumn mowing should be at 10cm.

The pollen and nectar flower mixture (EF4) should be a very rewarding option to include in your ELS scheme. The mixed sward of grasses, clovers and vetches are a magnet to a wide range of insects, including crop-pollinating bumblebees and invertebrates that predate on crop pests.

The option has the potential for huge wildlife benefit. Many species of bumblebee association with farmland are declining in numbers, and this sward is designed to give them a real boost. It will be particularly helpful if the area is sited close to sunny banks where bumblebees nest in burrows.

To maximise flowering, it is preferable that cuttings are removed, both from the June cut and when the whole area is cut each autumn.

Note that you can graze the area during autumn and winter. In fact, this is preferable to cutting as it is better for stimulating flowering and draws in more invertebrates, attracted by the dung. This in turn makes the area valuable for a wider range of bird species. Stock must be removed by the end of winter, and poaching must be avoided.

FAQ 5

ADAS's David Middleditch writes:

Q. I have a hedge with a gap in it – can I enter it into ELS?

Answer

The whole length of a gappy hedge can still be entered in ELS (EB1, EB2, EB3 and EB4) as long as the gaps amount to no more than 20% of the total length of that particular hedge.

If there are more than 20% gaps and you still want to enter the whole hedgerow length, you could plant up the gaps, although there is no payment for this – ELS options are for rotational cutting and hedge laying or coppicing.

As an alternative, you could enter continuous sections as individual hedges.

Note that when you are assessing the percentage of gaps in a hedge, do not include gaps under the canopy of hedgerow trees – as long as the canopy made by the hedge or hedgerow tree is continuous, then there isn’t a gap as far as the ELS scheme is concerned.

When you are measuring the gaps for your ELS application, it is a good idea to over, rather than under-estimate, the percentage, to ensure that your calculations don’t fall short of ELS requirements. 

The Higher Level Scheme (HLS) also includes a hedgerow option (HB12). This is specifically for the management of hedges of very high environmental value, such as ancient boundary hedges or ones that support a target species of bird, insect or mammal. This option does include possible funding for gapping up. If any of your hedges fit this description and you are planning to apply for HLS, you should consider which scheme is most appropriate for each hedgerow on your farm.

Note that hedges that have been planted or laid/coppiced in Countryside Stewardship are still eligible for the management option in ELS.

FAQ 6

ADAS's David Middleditch writes:

Q. I have a group of five trees on the edge of one of my fields. Can I enter them into ELS?

Answer
There are several ELS options for which small groups of trees may be eligible. The two main deciding factors are the number of trees in the group and their location.

In order to qualify for option EC1/EC2 ‘Protection of in-field trees’, the tree(s) must be separate from the boundary – as long as you can walk around the trunk, then that qualifies as ‘in-field’.

Also, for this option, the maximum number of trees in one in-field group is three – if their canopies overlap. If the canopies do not overlap then each tree will be considered separately.

If your trees have five overlapping canopies the group will be considered as woodland. In this case, possible options within ELS are woodland edge and buffer strip options.

Woodland edge options are EC3 and EC4 (page 44 in the handbook). EC3 involves the maintenance of woodland edge fencing in order to protect woodland flora and encourage natural regeneration of trees and shrubs.

EC4, titled ‘Management of woodland edges’, aims to produce a shrubby, 2m wide woodland edge by encouraging the wood to spread outwards. This option prevents cultivation or supplementary feeding of stock within 2metre of the existing woodland edge.

You could also add a buffer strip (options EE1 – EE6, page 50 – 54 of the handbook) to the above option, or opt for this instead if you prefer – though the value to wildlife from combining a series of options increases exponentially. Buffer strips are useful for taking land out of production where yields are compromised by adjacent woodland. From an environmental point of view, these strips protect adjacent features and they also develop habitat value in their own right. Buffer strips can be two, four, or six metre wide – choose whichever width is most suited to you and your machinery.

FAQ 7

ADAS's David Middleditch writes:

Q. I have a steep section of approximately 0.75 ha in the middle of an arable field. Can ELS help me take this out of production?

A. ELS provides an ideal opportunity to take awkward bits of land out of production. Although the three options that cover this are called ‘field corner management’, the land can be mid-field as well as at the field edge.

The three options are:

• EF1 (p56) - field corner management on arable land;
• EK1 (p73) – field corner management in grassland outside LFA;
• EL1 (p78) – field corner management in the LFA

For field corner management on arable land, the area of the corner must not exceed 1ha (the rules only allow one patch per 20 ha of arable land too), and in the case of EF1, the land must have been in arable cropping throughout the five years up to the start of your ELS agreement.

If you choose this option you are required to establish a grassy sward. This can be by natural regeneration or sowing. You can cut as frequently as you want in the first 12 months to encourage grass to tiller. After this the sward may only be cut once during the rest of the 5-year life of the scheme.

Only spot treatment or weed wiping is allowed to control injurious weeds.

Although the payment is the same, you can sow a mixture of fine grasses and wild flowers. If you do this, you are encouraged to cut annually, once the plants have set seed – simulating hay meadow management.

A field corner or mid-field patch could be entered instead for one of several options that provide a particularly rich source of food for wildlife. EF2 to EF5 (page 57 – 60 in the handbook) - wild bird seed mixture and pollen and nectar mixture – provide more benefit to wildlife than any other option in ELS. The high number of points they attract reflect this and the fact that they are more costly to manage, particularly as they have to be re-established several times during the 5-year life of your agreement.  

Field corners in grass, (EK1 and EL1), must be no more than 0.5ha in size with no more than one patch for every 10ha of land eligible.

FAQ 8

David Middleditch covers ditch management.

Q. Under cross compliance I can top the 2m protective zone around my ditches, but I have entered these ditches into the ditch management option of ELS – how do I organise my cutting regime?

A.

The protective zone for cross compliance is 2m from the centre of the ditch or 1m from the top of the ditch bank, whichever is greater. You are allowed to top this whenever you like, although it is recommended that it is done outside the main bird breeding season (1 March to 31 July).

This zone in your ditches in ELS Ditch Management option (EB6) can still be topped.

The restricted cutting area (in ELS EB6) starts from the brink (the start of the slope) of the ditch and down to the water.

The Ditch Management option in ELS aims to encourage bankside and aquatic vegetation and to provide undisturbed wildlife habitat adjacent to the ditch, so cutting of any one piece of ground is limited to every other year at the most, and you are only allowed to cut between 15 September and 28 February to minimise the risk of disturbing nesting birds.

Note that the ELS area can be left for longer than a bi-annual cut if you prefer the grassy sward to develop, which can provide dense, tussocky vegetation for wildlife. This is your choice.

Peatman,

I am trying to find out from the RPA if the field corner management option does become permanent pasture after five years. I will post an answer when I have one.

Rachel 

FAQ 9: Soil management

I have completed a Soil Protection Review as part of SPS Cross Compliance. Does this count as my Soil Management Plan under ELS?

Answer:
No. The soil protection review and soil management plan are two separate documents for separate schemes.

It is obligatory to complete a soil protection review as part of cross compliance, whereas it is your choice to carry out a soil management plan as an option (EM1) on the menu of options in Entry Level Stewardship (ELS).

The soil management plan option is worth 3 points per hectare, and applies to all improved land (unimproved land cannot be included).

A soil management plan should set out, field by field, how you plan to manage the land to reduce the risk of soil erosion and maintain good soil structure.

If you choose this and/or any of the other three management plan options (nutrients, manure and crop protection) in ELS, you must prepare your plan(s) within the first year of your agreement.

As part of your soil management plan you are required to complete a coloured map indicating the varying levels of risk of soil erosion (from water and wind). Features such as roads and watercourses should be highlighted.

In order to help protect your soil you can combine your soil management plan with ELS options that are designed to help control soil erosion, such as buffer strips or beetle banks. For details see page 70 of the ELS handbook. 

A key part of the soil management plan is to assess each field covered by the plan once a year. Any issues, along with any action taken, should be recorded.

The soil management plan is intended as a working document, so should be kept handy to refer back to and regularly update. When you are reviewing and updating your plan, don’t settle for the default option of saying that there were no soil erosion issues so no management was needed. Examples of what you could consider include:
• Take the opportunity to think about what might happen if there was a heavy downpour or high wind at different stages of establishing the crops in the rotation, or reseeding grassland.
• Look particularly where soil may be carried by run off into ditches or onto roads – which will then run into rivers and streams.
• Consider ways to avoid bare ground – even a small amount of trash on the surface will ‘cushion’ the impact of rain and reduce the risk of soil erosion.
• Consider ways to maintain and improve soil structure so that rain filters down through the soil profile rather than running off over the surface – earthworm activity is particularly effective for improving infiltration.
• Tramlines are a vulnerable point. Direct them, where possible across a slope, and consider subsoiling them post-harvest if the stubble is to remain for any length of time.

For more detail on the above and other management actions to protect soils, refer to the Defra guidance booklet, which can be downloaded from www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/schemes/es/soilmanagementplan.htm. It is also available in print and can be requested by post from Natural England Customer Services.
Page 101 of the ELS handbook contains a list of guidance publications.