The Stewardship Scheme has three levels:
The aims for ELS if taken up over large areas are:
Whole Farm Scheme open to all organic farmers who manage all or part of their land organically (5 year tenure)
Combine with the above but will be discretionary and will concentrate on complex management requirements (10 year tenure)
Entry level stewardship has the following options:
Buffer Strip Options in ELS must not overlap with:
Establish or maintain a grassy strip during the first 12 months of your agreement. The sward will need regular defoliation in the first 12 months to assist establishment and control weed species. Whilst it is possible to allow natural regeneration we feel this is not desirable as this will lead to the invasion of undesirable species and promote foliar diseases.
BGM 1 | With Cocksfoot |
BGM 2 | No Cocksfoot |
BGM 3 | With Cocksfoot and Clover |
Management as for the above, plus after 12 months cut the 3m next to the crop edge annually after mid July. Only cut the other 3m to control woody growth, and no more than one year in five (where next to woodland one year in ten). You may sow all or part of the margin with a mixture of fine leaved grasses and wild flowers.
BGM 1 | With Cocksfoot |
BGM 2 | No Cocksfoot |
BGM 3 | With Cocksfoot and Clover |
To maintain their value to wildlife, the water quality of ponds needs to be protected. The creation of unfertilised grass buffers around ponds will help prevent nutrient leaching and run-off whilst providing additional habitat for pond wildlife. Buffering must extend at least 10m from the edge of and around each pond. Management similar to above in first 12 months.
EE8 400 points per hectare
The provision for a grassy area has an enhanced benefit and provides interest for a wide variety of wildlife. These areas can accommodate those awkward areas of fields which are very difficult to manage in conventional farming. These areas will provide a habitat for invertebrates, birds, reptiles and amphibians. This option must not be located on archaeological sites.
Beetle Banks are tussocky grass ridges, generally about 2m wide that run from one side of a field to the other whilst still allowing the field to be farmed. They provide habitat for ground nesting birds, small mammals and insects (including those that feed on crop pests). When carefully placed across the slope such banks can help reduce run-off and erosion but you must ensure they do not channel water and make any existing problems worse.
BGM 1 | With Cocksfoot |
BGM 2 | No Cocksfoot |
BGM 3 | With Cocksfoot and Clover |
20% | Crested Dogstail |
20% | Creeping Red Fescue |
20% | Cocksfoot |
20% | Timothy |
20% | Tall Fescue |
100% |
20% | Crested Dogstail |
20% | Creeping Red Fescue |
20% | Chewings Fescue |
20% | Timothy |
20% | Sheeps Fescue |
100% |
20% | Crested Dogstail |
20% | Creeping Red Fescue |
15% | Cocksfoot |
20% | Timothy |
15% | Tall Fescue |
5% | Birdsfoot Trefoil |
5% | Small White Clover |
100% |
20% | Tall Fescue |
1 0% | Cocksfoot |
12.5% | Sheeps Fescue |
15% | Creeping Red Fescue |
10% | Crested Dogstail |
5% | Tall Oat Grass |
2.5% | Meadow Foxtail |
10% | Common Bentgrass |
1% | Black Knapweed |
2% | Red Clover |
2% | Birdsfoot Trefoil |
1% | Ox Eye Daisy |
1% | Self Heal |
1% | Yarrow |
0.5% | Cow Parsley |
5% | Sainfoin |
1.5% | Black Medick |
100% |
7% | Black Knapweed |
13% | Red Clover |
13% | Birdsfoot Trefoil |
7% | Ox Eye Daisy |
7% | Yarrow |
3.5% | Cow Parsley |
32% | Sainfoin |
10.5% | Black Medick |
7% | Self Heal |
100% |
This type of crop will provide a food source for seed eating birds in an arable landscape. The aim is to provide a year round supply of food, and sowing a combination of at least 3 seed bearing species as a mixture or in alternate rows.
WBS 1 | Annual Mix |
WBS 2 | 2 Year Mix |
WBA 1 | Autumn Mix |
You can only locate this option on Set-Aside land if you do not have an obligation to sow a green cover crop (e.g. following Maize). Make sure to refer to your Set-Aside instructions before you decide where to put your ELS option. Any sowings must be sown as a mixture rather than in alternate rows. Management Options are as for EF2.
WBS 1 | Annual Mix |
WBS 2 | 2 Year Mix |
WBA 1 | Autumn Mix |
The incorporation of flowering species producing both Pollen and Nectar will enhance the food source for feeding insects, butterflies, bees and bumblebees.
Can only be located on Set-Aside land if you do not have an obligation to sow a green cover crop (e.g. following Maize). As before check the Set-Aside instructions before deciding where to locate this option.Mixture Options
70% | Spring Cereal |
10% | Linseed |
10% | Millet |
10% | Mustard |
100% |
70% | Spring Cereal |
10% | T.H.Kale |
10% | Quinoa |
10% | Yellow Blossom Clover |
100% |
70% | Winter Cereal |
10% | Oil Seed Rape Double Low |
20% | Winter Vetches |
100% |
20% | Meadow Fescue |
15% | Creeping Red Fescue |
12.5% | Cocksfoot |
12.5% | Timothy |
15% | Tall Fescue |
5% | Smooth Meadow Grass |
3% | Red Clover |
3% | Alsike |
3% | Birdsfoot Trefoil |
3% | Black Medick |
3% | Early English Winter Vetch |
5% | Sainfoin |
100% |
The decline of mixed farming is one of the causes for the falling numbers of farmland birds in England. The following options may help to reverse this trend.
The addition of a grass/legume mixture as an under storey to the cereal crop will reduce the need for agrochemical inputs, increase the diversity of habitat provided in the field and benefit farm wildlife.
The under-sown option can include up to 10% legumes, the grass ley must be retained until the 15th July of the following year. This is an optional rotation and can be moved around the farm.
This option cannot be used in grassland that has been in permanent grass for five years or more.
WBS 1 | Annual Mix |
WBS 2 | 2 Year Mix |
WBA 1 | Autumn Mix |
This option cannot be used in grassland that has been in permanent grass for five years or more.
70% | Spring Cereal |
10% | Linseed |
10% | Millet |
10% | Mustard |
100% |
70% | Spring Cereal |
10% | T.H.Kale |
10% | Quinoa |
10% | Yellow Blossom Clover |
100% |
70% | Winter Cereal |
10% | Oil Seed Rape Double Low |
20% | Winter Vetches |
100% |
20% | Meadow Fescue |
15% | Creeping Red Fescue |
12.5% | Cocksfoot |
12.5% | Timothy |
15% | Tall Fescue |
5% | Smooth Meadow Grass |
3% | Red Clover |
3% | Alsike |
3% | Birdsfoot Trefoil |
3% | Black Medick |
3% | Early English Winter Vetch |
5% | Sainfoin |
100% |
10% | Common Bent Grass |
10% | Cocksfoot |
15% | Creeping Red Fescue |
15% | Sheeps Fescue |
7% | Smooth Meadow Grass |
5% | Rough Meadow Grass |
3% | Tufted Hairgrass |
5% | Yorkshire Fog |
2% | Agrimony |
3% | Birdsfoot Trefoil |
0.25% | Common Nettle |
2% | Rockrose |
2% | Devils Bit Scabious |
2% | Horseshoe Vetch |
2% | Kidney Vetch |
4% | Lucerne |
1.75% | Red Clover |
2% | Sheeps Sorrel |
1% | Wild Pansy |
2% | Wild Thyme |
2% | Tufted Vetch |
2% | Ribwort Plantain |
100% |
Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) will be combined with ELS or OELS options and aims to deliver significant environmental benefits in high priority situations and areas. HLS is discretionary and concentrates on the more complex types of management, where land managers need advice and support and where agreements need to be tailored to local circumstances. The five primary aims of Higher Level Stewardship are:
There are two secondary objectives where spin off benefits are sought from management designed to achieve the five primary aims, these are:
This option creates wood pasture on sites that are known to have been wood pasture. There could be a need to sow a specific grass seed mixture.
There may be a need to establish a grass buffer around the base of the tree. These options protect ancient trees within an arable situation.
This option provides a valuable Winter food source for declining farmland birds.It will be tailored to the specific target birds and will be specified by yourregional advisor.
This option provides feeding areas for insects and birds by maintaining field margins that contain a mixture of grass and wild flowers. As this option allows for the grazing or cutting on a cyclical basis care must be taken over which wild flowers are introduced so that there will be no problems stock at a later date.
This option returns fields to arable cultivation in order to provide valuable foraging sites for seed eating birds.
This option reduces the movement of sediment, nutrients and pesticides by wind and water.
This option creates species-rich grassland on former arable land.
This option creates semi improved or rough grassland on former arable, Set-Aside, or temporary grassland.
This option provides additional habitat for invertebrates, birds and small mammals by managing buffer strips in intensive grass leys.
Spring 2008 should see the introduction of the new Rural Development Contracts Rural Priorities (RDCRP) which will be competitive and the Rural Development Contracts Land Managers Options (LMO) which will replace the Land Management Contract Menu Scheme. Farmers who are currently in 2 to 5 year schemes (from RSS, LMCMC and others) should complete their agreed term of contract and may even wish to extend their contract duration, if this is mutually agreed with the Scottish Government. It is likely that these new LMOs are noncompetitive and that they are broadly similar to the existing LMCMS. The Unharvested Crop (Wild Bird Seed Mix), Species Rich Grass and Wild Flower Mixtures that we have offered for a number of years should meet any new LMO requirement. The grass margin mixtures that currently fulfill the requirements for beetle banks, conservation headlands and buffer areas are also likely to meet any new LMO prescriptions.
The RSShas beenclosed to all new entrants for 2005 but any agreements that have been signed must be completed.
Aim: To convert arable or improved grassland into species diverse grassland. A suitable seed mixture should consist of 80-85% non aggressive grasses and 15-20% native wild flowers. To allow flexibility the grass and wild flower mixtures are detailed separately and can be combined together in any proportion with a recommended sowing rate of the finished mixture of 6 8 kg/acre (15-20kg/hectare). All our wild flower seed used in species-rich grassland is of UK provenance.
Aim: To create strips around or across fields on which insects can over-winter and breed early in the season. They should also provide feed and cover for wild birds. To be eligible, land should form a strip between 1.5 and 6 metres in width.
Aim: To provide a wide, grassy margin which will become a feeding ground and habitat for insects, birds and small mammals. The headland should be a minimum of 6 metres in width around an arable field.
All Margins, Headlands &Beetle Banks 20kg/ha
BGM 2All Margins, Headlands& Beetle Banks (no Cocksfoot) 20kg/ha
20% | Sheeps Fescue |
10% | Red Fescue |
20% | Meadow Fescue |
15% | Smooth Meadow Grass |
10% | Crested Dogstail |
15% | Rough Meadow Grass |
10% | Common Bentgrass |
100% |
1 6% | Ribwort Plantain |
8.75% | Meadow Buttercup |
8.75% | Black Knapweed |
8.75% | Birds Foot Trefoil |
8% | Ox Eye Daisy |
12% | Self Heal |
4% | Yarrow |
8.75% | Common Sorrel |
25% | Yellow Rattle |
100% |
20% | Meadow Fescue |
20% | Creeping Red Fescue |
20% | Cocksfoot |
20% | Timothy |
20% | Tall Fescue |
100% |
20% | Meadow Fescue |
20% | Creeping Red Fescue |
20% | Chewings Fescue |
20% | Timothy |
20% | Sheeps Fescue |
100% |
Aim: To encourage the practice of leaving areas of crop unharvested or partly harvested in order to provide cover and feeding areas for wild birds. Spring sow a Cereal based mixture including at least one Legume species. Part of the mixture should seed in the first year and part in the second.
Available as cereal and forage components (packed separately) or as a forage component only (12 kg/ha) if using own cereals. WildFlowers can be added to any of the Grass Margin or Beetle Bank mixtures adding both colour and a source of nectar. Species must be compatible with long grass situations.
Wild Flowers can be added to any of the Grass margin or Beetle Bank mixtures adding both colour and a source of nectar. Species must be compatible with long grass situations.
35% | Spring Triticale |
35% | Spring Wheat |
10% | Thousand Headed Kale |
10% | Quinoa |
10% | Yellow Blossom Clover |
100% |
The LMCMS has 17 options with an aim of delivering widespread benefits leading to economic, social and environmental improvement. 2 of these options may require the sowing of new seed.
Aim: To establish a network of wildlife corridors, reduce the risk of pollutants entering wetland areas and watercourses and enhance
natural habitats and features.
Mixture Options
BGM 1
BGM 2
Sowing Rate 20 kg/ha.
Aim: To create patches or plots of bird seed and bird cover; through sowing mixtures of seed-bearing crops to benefit birds and invertebrates.
Mixture Options
WBS 2 - 2 Year Option
Sowing Rate 40 kg/ha.
20% | Meadow Fescue |
20% | Creeping Red Fescue |
20% | Cocksfoot |
20% | Timothy |
20% | Tall Fescue |
100% |
20% | Meadow Fescue |
20% | Creeping Red Fescue |
20% | Chewings Fescue |
20% | Timothy |
20% | Sheeps Fescue |
100% |
35% | Spring Triticale |
35% | Spring Wheat |
10% | Thousand Headed Kale |
10% | Quinoa |
10% | Yellow Blossom Clover |
100% |