Paul Wilson is hoping to secure one-third of the money he received from an old area-based subsidy scheme as he puts the finishing touches to a new farm environmental plan for 2023. He also plans to top up his farm income with a carbon credit offer.

Farming on the northern edge of the Cotswolds, he is looking at his 2023 Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) options across 755ha, and hopes to gain 33% of his old direct payments, after costs, without taking good arable land out of production.

See also: How growers can plan with support worth only one-third of BPS

SFI 2023 is seen as more flexible with more rotational options than the 2022 version and the pilot scheme, and his payouts could be increased in future years, as there will be more options available for 2024, such as for minimum tillage cultivations and woodland.

“It’s going to be tough and we will miss the income from the Basic Payment Scheme, but it is proving to be better than it could have been,” he tells Farmers Weekly.

Range of soil types

Mr Wilson farms 1,500ha of land ranging from Cotswold brash to heavy Warwickshire clays at Larkstoke Farm, about five miles north-west of Shipton-on-Stour.

Some 755ha of this is owned and rented land which he is putting into SFI 2023, while the rest is contract-farmed. The SFI is part of the government’s new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme.

Farmers Weekly had visited him two years ago to see how he was planning for the old SFI, and he is encouraged by the flexibility of the 2023 scheme, especially because of potential problems establishing oilseed rape and a blackgrass burden on his heavier land.

He is busy constructing a budget for SFI 2023 with Paul Pickford, a business consultant working with agronomy group Agrii.

Mr Pickford forecasts that SFI 2023 will bring in 40% of BPS revenue across all farms, which translates into a profit of 30% after added costs, such as seed and drilling, so Mr Wilson will do well if he achieves 33%.

Across the 755ha, SFI 2023 is forecast to pay him nearly £80/ha, or £60,000 for the whole area, compared with the last full year of direct payments at £233.30/ha in 2020, or about £180,000 for the farmed area.

Carbon credits  

Mr Wilson is also looking to gain carbon credits from a company called Soil Capital, running alongside the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).

He is budgeting SFI will bring him a further £62/ha, so this and the carbon credits together amount to £142/ha, or 60% of the 2020 full BPS payments.

“The new SFI is more flexible and has more rotational options, and together with Soil Capital we will be looking to replace as much of BPS as possible,” says Mr Pickford. There are 23 options in the 2023 SFI.

BPS payments were cut for the first time in 2021. The last payments will be made in 2027 and will then be gone completely by 2028, with 2024 payments set to be less than half that of 2020.

Mr Pickford’s aim is to target the three-year SFI options the farm is already doing, such as using companion and cover crops, together with not using insecticides on certain crops and the good care of hedgerows.

The 755ha of land is not in any Countryside Stewardship schemes.

Chosen options

The SFI options being looked at include the following:

• Larkstoke Farm has just drilled 120ha of oilseed rape with a companion crop of buckwheat. This will earn £55/ha under IPM3 in SFI 2023, and will help cover the added cost of the buckwheat seed at £15-£20/ha and drilling twice – once for the buckwheat and again for the rapeseed.
• Furthermore, Mr Wilson is planning to apply for the non-use of insecticides on half of the 755ha, which will earn him £45/ha under IPM4. The farm does not use insecticides on crops such as spring barley, so this seems a sensible option, and the 50% claim can be increased in future years.
• The only insecticides the farm is ever likely to spray are on winter barley and winter wheat in areas that are susceptible to aphid-borne barley yellow dwarf virus, such as on low-lying land near a river or watercourse. In addition, he is set to grow multispecies cover crops on 40ha of land ahead of spring-sown combining peas. This pays £129/ha under SAM2 option and will more than cover the cost of cover crop seed at £40-£50/ha, as well as drilling. This can bring in extra benefits from rent if a neighbour grazes his sheep, while the cover crops will also benefit the farm’s soil health. “We are growing the cover crops anyway as they work well on the farm ahead of spring-sown peas,” he says.
• Another area of payments is for the good maintenance of hedges (HRW1/2/3). Mr Wilson has 128 generally smallish fields with plenty of trees in the hedges. This could amount to about £15/ha, whereas a general average might be £13/ha within a range of £10-£25/ha. The farm is already managing its hedgerows, so this is a payment for what is currently being done.
• A further option is for 4-12m grass buffers around fields, which cover 3.6ha and pay £451/ha (AHL4), existing winter bird food crops across 5.3ha paying £732/ha (AHL2), and grassy field corners and blocks over 12ha paying £590/ha (AHL3). One grassy corner in one field would amount to£28 on the farm.
• He will also look at a three-year legume fallow which pays £593/ha (NUM3), as there is a 3.3ha low-lying, small, wet field with low productivity.

Taking land out of production

He intends to take 40ha out of production, which will be put down to a legume fallow. The major objective is to control blackgrass. He is not taking into account any income in terms of replacing BPS payments, as it is big block taken out of the farm’s cash cropping.

“We struggle with spring options on the heavy land, so we see this as a spring break crop that is likely to replace winter barley on particularly bad blackgrass land,” says Mr Wilson.

There are a number of actions most growers will already be taking, such as testing soil organic matter and producing a soil management plan (worth £5.80/ha plus £95/agreement as part of SAM1), drawing up an integrated pest management plan (£989/year in IPM1), and having a nutrient management plan (paying £589/year under NUM1).

In addition, there is an SFI management payment at £20/ha for the first 50ha, which is worth £1,000 and available to all entering SFI.

He will also consider small areas of flower- rich grass margins (IMP2) worth £673/ha, pollen and nectar flower mixes (AHL1) at £614/ha, and look at introducing clover into permanent pastures as legumes on improved grassland (NUM2), which pays £102/ha and can help to cut his nitrogen fertiliser use.

His SFI payments is set to be topped up by Belgium-based Soil Capital, which works with 1,000 farmers in the UK, France and Belgium and offers carbon credit payments, paid for largely by big agricultural companies looking to lower their carbon footprint.

The company operates with about 85 UK farmers, offering payments for practices such as minimum tillage, cover crop use and applying farmyard manures, which are all aimed at reducing carbon emissions and locking up carbon in the soil