May 2024 FAS Newsletter - Text-only Version

May 2024 – Issue 99

Welcome to the Farming Advice Service (FAS) newsletter

Thank you for continuing to subscribe to our monthly newsletter. We hope you find the content useful and we welcome any feedback or suggestions on topics you would like to see covered in future editions.

• FAS technical advice line: 03000 200 301
• Email: advice@farmingadviceservice.org.uk
• Website: farmingadviceservice.org.uk

Contents:

• Key dates to be aware of…
• How can we help you?
• Watch our webinar recordings and listen to our podcasts
• Directory of farmer support organisations – here to help the farming community
• New technical articles available on the FAS website: Soil health in UK farming
• Expanding the Sustainable Farming Incentive Offer
• The Management of Hedgerows Regulations 2024
• Water abstraction e-Alerts: Now available across England / Local Resource Option screening studies: apply now
• Trees on farms: Five benefits of planting trees on less productive land / Do you know how to spot ash dieback on your land?
• Updates from the Farming blog and industry announcements
• Stay up to date with us

Key dates to be aware of

1 March– 31 August New hedgerow management rules came into force in May 2024. As part of this, the hedgerow management rules on cutting and trimming, announced that hedgerows covered by the rules must not be cut or trimmed from 1 March to 31 August.

1 June– 1 July  If you missed the deadline for submitting your 2024 Countryside Stewardship or Environmental Stewardship claim without reduction (15 May 2024), you can still submit
a claim between 1 June and 1 July with a 10% reduction applied to claim value. You still have until 11.59pm on Wednesday 2 September 2024 to submit a claim, but the later you submit it, the greater the reduction. 

1 June The three-year agreements for the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund (CSFF) begin on 1 June 2024.

1 July New hedgerow management rules came into force in May 2024. As part of this, the hedgerow management rules on buffer strips will apply from 1 July 2024.

In case you missed them…

16 April You must not burn heather, rough grass, bracken, gorse or vaccinium in upland areas from this date. (GOV.UK). 

15 May The deadline for submitting your 2024 revenue claim for Countryside Stewardship (CS) or Environmental Stewardship (ES) is 11.59pm on Wednesday 15 May 2024. If you miss this deadline, you still have until 11.59pm on Wednesday 2 September 2024 to submit a claim, but a reduction will be applied to the value of your claim – the later you submit it, the greater the reduction.

For more details about the information provided in the key dates section, visit the Rules for Farmers and Land Managers.

Upcoming grant deadlines

7 June The deadline for applications to be submitted for a Water Restoration Fund grant is midnight (11:59) on 7 June 2024.
28 June The deadline to submit your full application for the Slurry Infrastructure grant round 1 is midnight (11:59) on 28 June 2024.
10 July The deadline to check, sign and return the form sent to you by the RPA to receive grant funding through the Farming Recovery Fund 2024 is 10 July 2024.

In case you missed them…

From 3 January the following grants opened for application
• Capital Grants 2024
• Higher Tier Capital Grants 2024
• Protection and Infrastructure Grants 2024
• Woodland Management Plan (WMP) Grants 2024
• Woodland Tree Health (WTH) Grants
• Implementation Plan Grant (PA1) or Feasibility Study Grant (PA2)

How can we help you?

Free and confidential advice

The FAS is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). We provide free, confidential advice to help farmers in England understand and meet the cross compliance requirements. These requirements apply to you if you are a Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), Countryside Stewardship or Environmental Stewardship claimant.

Defra updates the farming sector on relevant government farming policy that is applicable in England and on the actions that can be taken to help farmers comply with the relevant regulations. Our newsletter also provides articles on topics that are complementary to cross compliance, such as practices that benefit the wider environment and wellbeing support.

Our website hosts our previous newsletters, as well as technical articles and webinars that cover various topics in more detail.

Contacting the advice line

Farmers requiring telephone advice can contact the FAS technical advice line on 03000 200 301, Monday to Friday, between 08:30 and 17:00. The Rural Services Helpline provides a single number for all FAS, RPA, Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Natural England and forestry enquiries.

You can also email enquiries to advice@farmingadviceservice.org.uk. Our helpline team aims to respond to all telephone and email enquiries within one working day.

The advice given to individual farmers is confidential – we do not disclose any personal or individual information or data obtained during advisory activities.

Watch our webinar recordings and listen to our podcasts

If you missed any of our previous webinar sessions, including:
• Integrated Pest Management with Richard Heady of Heady’s Farm
• Understanding soil biology for soil health and productive agriculture, with Dr Felicity Crotty
You can watch these recordings and more on the FAS website

You can also listen to previous webinars as podcasts through the FAS website and Spotify, Audible, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

Directory of farmer support organisations – here to help the farming community

We understand it can be difficult to keep up with all the changes affecting the farming industry, and that the amount of information available can be daunting. The FAS is here to help.

A range of organisations offer complementary forms of support for the farming community and both the National Directory of Farm and Rural Support Groups and Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI) provide comprehensive lists of these organisations. However, in this article, FAS provides a selection of recognised farmer support organisations (chosen due to their national coverage) that offer a range of support to the farming community, including information on how they can help, links to further information and how you can get in touch.

New technical articles available on the FAS website: Soil health in UK farming

In March, FAS published a new technical article on Soil health in UK farming.  The article outlines the principles of soil health, soil testing requirements and the available Sustainable Farming Incentive actions focused on improving soil health on your farm. In the context of farming, soil health broadly refers to the continued capacity of soil to function as an ecosystem that sustains plants, animals and humans.

Benefits of healthy soil
Healthy soils provide ecosystem services as well as other direct benefits such as:
• Improved nutrient availability – this reduces the need for artificial nutrient additions over time, thus reducing costs.
• Resilience to extreme weather – higher levels of soil organic matter increase the ability of soils to hold moisture and increase the infiltration rate, which protects land from events such as flooding or droughts.
• Supporting sustainable crop production.
• Environmental regulation – soil health contributes to the regulation of air and water quality, as well as climate, and supports biodiversity and carbon sequestration.

Threats to soil health
There are consequences to poor soil management. Threats to soil health include:
• Loss of soil organic carbon – leading to reduced soil fertility and diminished soil carbon storage capacity.
• Soil erosion – resulting in the loss of topsoil, lower crop yields, increased flood risk and water quality implications.
• Soil compaction – leading to a restriction of root growth, impairment of water filtration and an increase in run-off, leading to flood risk and reduced soil productivity.
• Soil biodiversity loss – this hinders natural pest control mechanisms and nutrient cycling processes, which poses a threat to the long-term sustainability of agricultural systems.
Sustainable management practices, conservation strategies and policy interventions can safeguard soil health and ensure the longevity of soils for future generations.

Soil testing requirements
The Farming Rules for Water require farmers and land managers to conduct soil tests every five years to inform planning for applying manures and fertilisers. Nutrient planning ensures that nutrients spread on the land are applied at the right time and in quantities that are sufficient to meet and not exceed the crop or soil need on cultivated agricultural land. This nutrient planning must take into
account the results of the soil testing for pH, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium and Magnesium for every cultivated field. Soil nitrogen levels can be determined by assessing the soil nitrogen supply.
The soil analysis should be performed by an accredited laboratory. The results must not be more than five years old and must be kept to demonstrate compliance with the requirement for up-to-date soil testing.

Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) 2024
The SFI will be open to new entrants for the first time and will initially comprise of 102 actions. The actions available include a number related to soil:
• CLIG3: Manage grassland with very low nutrient inputs
• CMOR1: Assess moorland and produce a written record
• OFA1: Overwinter stubble (organic land)
• OFA6: Undersown cereal crop (organic land)
• CSAM1: Assess soil, produce a soil management plan and test soil organic matter
• CSAM2: Multi-species winter cover crop
• CSAM3: Herbal leys
• SOH1: No-till farming
• SOH2: Multi-species spring-sown cover crop
• SOH3: Multi-species summer-sown cover crop
• SOH4: Winter cover following maize crops.
These actions can help with the long-term productivity and resilience of the soil and therefore benefit food production. They can also provide environmental benefits, such as better water quality, improved climate resilience and increased biodiversity. For more information, you can use the new digital tool ‘Find funding for land or farms’ which has been designed to help signpost customers toward the funding that is available to them.

More technical articles covering a range of topics are also available on the FAS website:
• The end of Cross Compliance: What does that mean for Compliance Requirements on Farm?
• Environment Agency Updated Prospects for Irrigation - Forecast for 2024
• Animal Welfare Compliance Requirements for Farmers
The full catalogue of technical articles can be found here.

Expanding the Sustainable Farming Incentive Offer

Defra has set out the details of the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer. 

This detail enables farmers to make informed business decisions and can help them navigate through the challenges caused by significant wet weather in recent months. This SFI offer includes actions that can make farming businesses more resilient to the challenges they are currently facing.
From July 2024, farmers and land managers will be able to access options currently available in Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier (CS MT), actions from the SFI offer, plus new actions all through one scheme – SFI. For the first time farmers can apply for the SFI if they didn’t receive Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments. The expanded SFI offer will increase the number of
actions from 23 to 102 in the initial rollout, including actions on precision farming, agroforestry and no till for the first time. New actions will support flood preparedness, helping businesses to become more resilient to the changing climate and challenging weather conditions. Expressions of interest have now opened for those wishing to apply through the controlled roll out, ahead of the offer being fully self-service in July 2024. The RPA will invite a mix of customers into the controlled roll out at the end of this month to fully test the service and gather representative feedback. If you would like to be one of the first farmers to access the expanded SFI offer, you can complete a short expression of interest on the RPA website. Defra will then choose a select number of individuals to submit an application before they open the new offer to the wider sector. Applications will open to the wider sector, based on eligibility, on 22 July 2024.

Meanwhile, it has also been confirmed that the application window for CS Higher Tier, which provides grants to help farmers protect, restore or enhance the environment, will open in the winter, with agreements starting in January 2025. Defra have been improving the offer, making it simpler and reducing the burden of seeking advice and endorsement. 

You can read more detail about the expanded offer, and the latest on Higher Tier, on the blog post on the Defra Farming Blog.

Due to the announcement that the next general election will take place on 4 July 2024, communication from Government bodies, including Defra, is currently restricted. As such, the Farming Advice Service webinar: Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 2024, has now been postponed from 29 May until after the general election. As soon as a new date is confirmed we will let you know via the website, email and social media – we hope to see you there. In the mean-time, you can find SFI scheme information – expanded offer for 2024 on the SFI gov.uk pages.

The Management of Hedgerows Regulations 2024

This month Parliament passed new hedgerow regulations. The Management of Hedgerows (England) Regulations 2024 puts the baseline for hedgerow management practices into law, providing a consistent approach for their protection across the country.
This includes:
• A 2-metre buffer strip, measured from the centre of a hedgerow, where a green cover must be established and maintained. Also, no cultivation or the application of pesticides or fertilisers should take place within this buffer strip.
• A hedgerow cutting ban from 1 March to 31 August (inclusive).

These practices will be subject to exceptions, which you can find in the legislation. They broadly mirror the previous approach under cross compliance. This will make it straightforward for farmers and others who are familiar with the requirements.

You can find guidance on buffer strips and cutting and trimming on GOV.UK. The regulations will now be enforced by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). The RPA will hold a public consultation on how
to implement and enforce these protections, fairly and proportionately. The regulations are designed to provide an extra level of reassurance that the same management approach is used across the country.

Water abstraction e-Alerts: Now available across England / Local Resource Option screening studies: apply now

Water abstraction e-Alerts: Now available across England 

Despite experiencing a wet winter, farmers and land managers must remain aware of the way water levels and flows are managed. Some licensed abstractors must stop or reduce how much water they can take when it’s dry. These restrictions protect the environment and the rights of other water users and are sometimes called ‘hands-off flow/level’ conditions. 

The Environment Agency is now sending email alerts in every area of England via the Manage Your Water Abstraction Service. This means abstractors will know as soon as restrictions are in force or
have been lifted and can resume taking water when conditions have improved without delay.
As part of this roll out, the Environment Agency has reached out to licence holders, and licence holder representatives, to capture up-to-date email addresses to send the e-Alerts to. This will help to ensure abstractors do not miss out on taking water that is valuable for their businesses.
The Managing Water Abstraction Service is also used by abstractors to:
• View their licence information online
• Give other people access to manage their licence and returns
• Submit abstraction returns (records of abstracted quantities).

The Environment Agency is encouraging anyone who has not done so already to register for an account with the service: www.gov.uk/manage-water-abstraction

Local Resource Option screening studies: apply now 

As detailed in the March newsletter, you can now apply for a Local Resource Option (LRO) screening study. The deadline for applications is 16 June. You can find out more on GOV.UK and on the Defra Farming blog.

Trees on farms - Five benefits of planting trees on less productive land / Do you know how to spot ash dieback on your land?

Five benefits of planting trees on less productive land

As part of the Forestry Commission’s England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO), farmers and land managers can receive support for tree planting. See below for five benefits of planting trees in areas of less productive land:
1. Shade and shelter livestock
Tree shelterbelts can protect livestock from cold, wet and windy weather. Well-placed trees can also offer a source of shade in the summer months, helping to boost productivity and animal welfare,
reducing the negative impacts of rising temperatures.
2. Boost soil and animal health
When integrated well, trees can help to limit nutrient run-off by up to 80%, potentially saving farmers/ land managers money on fertiliser and contributing overall to a healthy and resilient farming system. Trees planted strategically in wetter fields can help to mitigate flooding and naturally dry soils, reducing the risk of livestock infection and diseases caused by wet conditions underfoot.
3. Mitigate flooding
When planted along a watercourse, trees can function as an effective flood management solution, stabilising riverbanks, improving soil infiltration and water retention, and reducing flood peaks by up to 65%.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        4. Generate additional income
Planting the right trees in the right place can help farmers/ land managers to generate reliable revenue streams. Depending on the businesses, goals and site characteristics, you could harvest trees for timber, wood fuel and other wood products, such as fence posts for your farm. Or you could look to diversify the business through designing woodland for recreation, with opportunities ranging from glamping experiences and game shoots to cycling activities and forest schools.
5. Capture and sell carbon
Registering the planting project with the Woodland Carbon Code allows farmers/land managers to sell the carbon that new woodland will sequester in the form of Woodland Carbon Units. You can
also look to capture carbon to offset your business’ carbon emissions.

Under EWCO, farmers/land managers can receive up to £10,200 per hectare to cover capital costs. Plus, a further £11,600 is available in additional contributions for schemes supporting benefits to society, nature recovery and the wider environment. EWCO’s new Low Sensitivity Land Payment offers an additional £1,100 per hectare, for applications on low sensitivity land, avoiding areas most suitable for food production. Your local Forestry Commission team can offer free support at every stage of your EWCO project, from advising on species selection to arranging a site visit and helping
you to draw up a woodland creation design plan. The Forestry Commissions’ local Woodland Creation Partners also offer a wide range of highly competitive grants and funding, across specific regional catchment areas in England. 

To find out more and how to access free support, visit gov.uk/woodland-creation.

Do you know how to spot ash dieback on your land?

Ash trees are an important and significant tree in the landscape, both rural and urban. They provide valuable habitat for a range of wildlife both within woodlands and along corridors such as hedgerows and roadsides. Healthy trees are important to farm businesses and nature, providing shelterbelts, reducing run-off and soil erosion.
Most parts of the country are now experiencing the impacts of ash dieback. It is important to consider the effects of this tree disease if you own or manage ash trees, even if you are dealing with low levels of infection. Ash dieback is a serious fungal disease affecting the common ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior) and other Fraxinus species. It is caused by a fungus called Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, which
is native to eastern Asia. The disease was first identified in England in 2012, although research has shown that it is likely to have been present since at least 2005. The fungus causes gradual
crown dieback and can also attack the root collar of susceptible trees. Infection can lead to leaf loss and dead branches throughout the crown of ash trees, as well as clumps of new growth towards the
centre of the crown. 

Matt Smith, Woodland Officer at the Forestry Commission, has written a new blog post to help farmers and landowners spot and manage the risk posed by ash dieback. There is also information on the grants and incentives to support restocking.

Updates from the Farming blog and industry announcements

Defra regularly updates the Farming blog. Please subscribe to the blog to ensure you receive all the latest news.

Farming and food sector support 

A new package of support for the UK’s farming and food sector was announced at the Farm to Fork Summit and includes:
• Support for farmers and growers affected by wet weather
• A plan to increase domestic production in the UK horticulture sector
• Publication of a Food Security Index setting out key data and trends
• New farming grants to help farm businesses.

Support for those affected by wet weather
Building on the Farming Recovery Fund to support farmers who have been flooded, temporary adjustments will be made for farmers and land managers where the wet weather has led to difficulties carrying out the requirements of Environmental Land Management Schemes. For more information, please visit GOV.UK.

New grants for farmers
The new grants announced include:
• £3 million for new and mobile abattoirs through the Farming Investment Fund
• Over £20 million for the Laying Hen Housing for Health and Welfare Grant, which offers grants between £5,000 and £500,000 each, to help laying hen and pullet farmers to improve the health, welfare and productivity of their flocks
• Over £72 million for the Endemics Disease Scheme so farmers can take the action they need to take to tackle endemic disease
• A Nutrient Management Grant to support the development and adoption of novel techniques for improving nutrient management.

Wider support
The Lincolnshire Rural Support Network, YANA and the Farming Network and Company will benefit from additional funding, coming from a £500,000 Defra fund to charitable partners for projects that support mental health in the farming sector. For more information, you can read the full announcement on GOV.UK.

Latest bluetongue update: risk to livestock and steps to control virus set out for year ahead

On 7 May 2024, the Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) published an updated qualitative risk assessment, which confirmed a very high probability of a new introduction of bluetongue virus serotype 3 (BTV-3) into livestock in Great Britain through infected biting midges being blown over from northern Europe. Bluetongue virus is primarily transmitted by biting midges (Culicoides species) and affects cattle, sheep, and other ruminants such as goats and deer, and camelids such as llamas and alpacas. The virus does not affect people or food safety. On 23 May, Defra set out how it will manage an outbreak of bluetongue virus in England this year to help farmers and livestock keepers prepare. The Disease Control Framework for Bluetongue Virus Serotype 3 in England in 2024 confirms that
movement controls of susceptible animals and their germinal products will be used as a precautionary tool to stem the spread of the disease until a safe and effective vaccine for BTV-3 becomes widely available. Vaccine manufacturers are working to facilitate safe access to a BTV-3 vaccine as soon as possible, but it is vital that any vaccine has the confidence of industry, consumers and trading partners. This includes understanding the efficacy of any vaccine deployed across all species, together with potential impacts on trade. Livestock keepers should remain vigilant, familiarise themselves with the clinical signs and monitor their animals frequently. Any suspicions of this notifiable disease should be reported to APHA immediately. Keepers must also maintain up-to-date registrations for all livestock, and land and buildings used to keep livestock, even short term lets, so the location of susceptible animals can be traced to help prevent and control disease. Find out when and how to apply for temporary land arrangements (TLA) or a temporary CPH (tCPH). You can read more about bluetongue and the Disease Control Framework for BTV-3 in England in 2024 on GOV.UK.

Cryptosporidium outbreak

Following the recent news of the cryptosporidium outbreak in Devon, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued some guidance around how to stay safe from infections. It is encouraged that farmers share this guidance with visitors, and this is the link. How to stay safe from infections carried by animals when visiting a farm – UK Health Security Agency (blog.gov.uk).

RPA podcasts and blog

The RPA has a freely available podcast series freely which covers a range of topics on RPA services, as well as farming/land management grants and schemes.
In the latest episode (episode 9), the podcast team discussed the opening of the claim window for existing Countryside Stewardship revenue and Environmental Stewardship agreements, delinked payments, RPA’s shows and events schedule, and the new round of Farming Equipment and Technology Fund Grants. The episode also contains an interview with Marie Hardeman, RPA’s Customer Director, who talks about her first year in the role and improvements in Customer Services. 

Listen to the RPA podcast
Keep up to date on developments at the RPA with the RPA Podcast. You can listen to all the latest episodes on Apple and Spotify, or through Buzzsprout.
Subscribe to the RPA blog and you will receive email updates when a new blog is posted.

Stay up to date with us

Get the latest updates by following us on Twitter

Follow us on @DefraFAS for up-to-the-minute updates on publications, events and industry information.

Subscribe to our free monthly newsletter

If you don’t already receive our monthly FAS newsletter, please visit farmingadviceservice.org.uk and enter your email address into the newsletter sign-up box.

Alternatively, please email bookings@farmingadviceservice.org.uk , with ‘Register for newsletter’ in the subject line.

In line with data protection regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018, the FAS has updated its privacy policy to explain how your data is kept safe. To view the policy, please visit www.farmingadviceservice.org.uk/events/privacy/.