Defra announces more temporary adjustments for CSS

Defra has announced further easing of some of the rules for the Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS) to reflect the problems many farmers experienced in the hot and dry summer.

It has confirmed that anyone who established options AB9 (winter bird food) and/or OP2 (wild bird seed mixture) in spring 2022, will still be paid even if the heat means they have deteriorated to the point they are judged to have failed.

Claimants must have followed the usual prescriptions and recommended management rules and will need to send in a minor and temporary adjustment form to notify the RPA.

See also: Defra eases grazing rules on stewardship land to ease fodder crisis

There is no requirement to re-establish the options this year, but farmers will need to re-establish the options next year to continue to be paid in subsequent years.

Defra has said that anyone needing to establish AB1 (nectar flower mix), AB8 (flower rich margins and plots), AB15 (two-year sown legume fallow) and AB16 (autumn-sown bumblebird mix) has until 30 September to do so, rather than the usual date of 15 September.

It has also confirmed that people with OP1 (overwintered stubble) as a management option can sow forage crops on up to 50% of it and graze it until 14 February 2023.