Buying an outlying 40ha block of arable land just as the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is being introduced gives Salisbury Monitor Farm host Ben Jeans the opportunity to weigh up the new scheme.

With the first SFI arable soil standards available later this year, offering up to £40/ha for land entered, Mr Jeans is keen to understand whether they are suitable for the new block.

He is also wondering if they would work elsewhere – especially as they can be introduced where existing environmental measures are already in place, to complement rather than duplicate current measures.

See also: How arable growers can qualify for new SFI soil payment scheme

In addition to the arable options, he may find the SFI grasslands soils standard, which is worth up to £58/ha, suitable for the dairy grazing land on his 830ha mixed farming business.

Higher Tier scheme

Already, an existing Higher Tier Countryside Stewardship (CS) scheme, introduced in 2019 at Chalk Pyt Farm, provides £41,000/year.

Its implementation resulted in 27.5ha being taken out of production, with a further 122ha under constrained management and 126ha in downland priority habitat. When in-field stewardship options are counted, they represent 3.6% of productive land.

“Back then, it made sense to move from HLS [Higher Level Stewardship], which at the time could not be extended, into the current scheme – as about one-fifth of the farm is chalk grassland with great species diversity,” says Mr Jeans.

Ben Jeans © AHDB

“With hindsight, we would have put more constrained management options in for our grassland, but the new scheme seemed complex enough.”

As CS still has two more years of life and payment rates have been reviewed, he is wondering whether it is worth putting the new block into CS as well.

Habitat management

“It’s away from our main farm base, so there’s an issue with moving men and machines to do small, habitat management jobs,” he points out. “Although it’s separate from our other land, it won’t be farmed in isolation.”

Otherwise, it is similar to much of the arable land in the area – a big, open landscape on chalk, with some hedgerows and a few other features on it, including an ancient burial site.

As he intends to have spring crops growing for two years in every four, he will be growing cover crops on the block. But no other decisions have been made yet, with Mr Jeans keen to understand more about what can be achieved.

Possible solution

Scale, implementation and placement should be considered when looking at suitable environmental options for arable land, advises Howard Makant, senior land management adviser with Natural England.

That means making any habitat bigger, making it better and then joining it up with other environmental features, he explains, with an aim of having it on 5-10% of the land.

“We know we’re going to have to up our game when it comes to factors such as water quality and biodiversity,” he says.

Looking at the new block with CS in mind, the first consideration is where to put any options, says Mr Makant, who points out that they can help to simplify field operations as well as to link up habitats.

Then, the financial considerations come into play, with future private finance options also relevant, he acknowledges. “If hedges are put back, for example, they can become a carbon sink.”

Chosen options

Chalky soils do get rare arable plants, he explains, so the rotational cultivated margins option (AB11) is a good one for the local area.

“They do get a bit ‘weedy’ and are ideal for feeding chicks – if you put them next to a hedge, you also provide refuge for those chicks.”

He also suggests AB8 – floristically enhanced margins – as once they are established, the work involved is completed. Again, putting them along hedges adds to their value.

Otherwise, 4m-wide grass margins (SW1) could be placed along the bottom of the block, to protect water quality, while blocks of wild bird seed (AB9) could be used to square off fields.

Finally, he notes that HS2 could be used around the barrow.

In total, that would take 1.8ha out of production and result in £2,488, or £62/ha.

SFI standards

If Mr Jeans decides to introduce one of the SFI soil standards on the land, he would receive either £22/ha or £40/ha, depending on the level of ambition he opted for.

At the introductory level, he would need to test soil organic matter, produce a soil management plan, ensure that at least 70% of the land entered has a green cover over the winter months and add organic matter to one-third of the land in the standard.

For the intermediate level, he would have to do all of the above actions as well as including multi-species cover crops are in place on 20% of the land entered.

Howard Makant and Ben Jeans were speaking at an AHDB-organised Salisbury Monitor Farm meeting, looking at farming environmentally and profitably. The next meeting – an oilseed rape workshop – will be held on 24 February 2022.