Co-op farms calls for more flexible ELS
Britain’s largest farming business has called on the government to make Entry-Level Stewardship more flexible after a points shortfall threatened to oust its Fenland farm from the scheme.
Four of the Co-operative Farms have been rolled into a single ELS application, comprising a total of 6500ha.
One of these, the Coldham Estate near Wisbech in Cambridgeshire, could not achieve the 30 points per ha over the farm required to remain in ELS without taking valuable Grade 1 and 2 silt land out of production.
“That wouldn’t make commercial sense,” Co-op Farms managing director Christine Tacon told agriculture minister Jim Paice during a ministerial visit to the farm on Friday (29 October).
The points shortfall was down to the loss of ELS management plans, that had brought an extra seven points per ha in 2005. So a surplus of points from the Down Ampney estate in Gloucestershire was used to allow the Fenland farm to re-join.
“In all honesty we fudged getting this farm on to the ELS,” said Ms Tacon. “The principle was not meant to be that you could use points from a Wiltshire farm to combine with one in Cambridgeshire.”
| Coldham Estate farm facts |
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An ADAS review of the biodiversity gains delivered during the previous five-year agreement on the farm commended it as “an oasis in a desert”. Bird species had risen from 26 to 38, with RSPB red-listed Yellow Hammers, Linnets, Song Thrushes and Yellow Wagtails all introduced. Few farms in the area had followed suit and joined ELS.
While re-joining the scheme has been a struggle for Coldham, the Co-op’s Stoughton Farm in Leicestershire has effortlessly upgraded to Higher Level Stewardship, reported Ms Tacon. “The value of the things we’re doing at Coldham because it’s a featureless farm are much greater than doing exactly the same thing on the farm at Stoughton,” she said.
“The ELS was very crude when it came in but now it needs a degree of sophistication to help the farmers in the Fens do the right thing for wildlife.”
Natural England chairman Poul Christensen confirmed ELS has a number of challenges that need to be addressed if it is to reach the target of 70% of farms on board.
“The other big issue is wheat price at £160/tonne. When you weigh up ELS across your farm and it doesn’t make sense because of the price of wheat, then you have to look at the cost-effectiveness of the scheme.”
One suggested solution put to Jim Paice was to stratify ELS, introducing a £20/ha payment for farmers achieving 20 points per ha. “You can’t do this with the scheme as currently drafted,” said the MP for south-east Cambridgeshire.
“But I’m quite concerned about ELS because it was supposed to be a broad and shallow scheme, open to all. You don’t want oases. You want a good covering of environmental habitats. In principle ELS should be able be more flexible.”