New options for Entry Level Stewardship

Natural England has just announced that subject to EU Commission approval there will be changes made to Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) from January 1, 2013.

As well as introducing five new options, changes will also be made to existing option prescriptions and points values. This is as a result of the MESME project – Making Environmental Stewardship More Effective.

The new options are for supplementary feeding in winter for farmland birds, a supplement to add wildflowers to buffer strips and field corners, ryegrass seed-set for winter food for birds, legume and herb-rich swards, and small scale hedgerow restoration. These have been introduced to address specific environmental needs not currently met by existing options.

Just as important for some farmers are the changes to existing options, many of which relate to reducing the points awarded.

“This could make getting into the scheme or renewing agreements after January 1, 2013 more difficult as the reductions relate to some of the more popular options including hedgerow management and buffer strips on cultivated land and intensive grassland,” warned Mandy Seedhouse, environment specialist with Berrys at Shrewsbury.

The points for the compulsory Farm Environmental Record will also be reduced.  However Natural England has also changed the prescriptions on other options such as nectar flower mixture and unharvested cereal headlands to ease management and encourage uptake.

“How the changes effect you will depend on the type of options needed to get the farm into the scheme,” she said.

“If you are not already in ELS but are considering applying and know that you would want to include your hedgerows for example it would be worth getting in before the changes come into effect on January 1 next year.  To ensure a 2012 start date under the existing rules an application will need to be submitted by  October 1, 2012 at the latest.

“It is also worth noting that all of the new options except for the supplement to add wildflowers are available to existing agreement holders and agreements can be amended to take effect from January 1, 2012,” she added.