Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier is a government funded environmental grant scheme and provides incentives for land managers to focus on meeting environmental priorities in their local area in return for annual payments over a 5-year scheme.
Applications for a Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier agreement are competitive and any application submitted would be scored again specific criteria and therefore it is not a certainty that every application will be successful. However, there are ways of increasing your chances through a number of ways such as a Wild Pollinator and Farm Wildlife Package.
All Mid-Tier agreements will run for a period of five years from the agreement start date which would be the 1st January 2023 if you are applying this year. The deadline for applying for an agreement is the 29th July 2022.
A Mid-Tier agreement is split into two separate components, that of the environmental management options and the capital items. Any capital items applied for would need to be completed within the first two years of the agreement, with some examples of capital items being as follows:
- FG2: Sheep netting fencing* – £4.90 per metre
- FG12: Wooden field gates* – £390 per gate
- LV7: Livestock Troughs* – £110 per trough
- RP15: Concrete yard renewal* – £27.14 per m2
- RP28: Roofing* – £62 per m2
In respect of the environmental management options, there will be an annual claim to be filled out by the 15th May each year which is basically an undertaking from you that there will be no changes to your scheme and that you are continuing to fully comply with the agreement requirements. A few examples of the environmental management options are as follows:
- GS2: Permanent grassland with very low-inputs (outside SDAs)* – £132 per hectare
- GS4: Legume and herd-rich swards* – £358 per hectare
- BE3: Management of hedgerows* – £9 per 100m for one side of a hedge
- AB7: Wholecrop cereals* – £554 per hectare
- AB9: Winter bird food* – £640 per hectare
- OT3: Organic land management – rotational land* – £109 per hectare
* All environmental management options and capital option requirements must be fully complied with in accordance with the relevant Rural Payments Agency rules. Please see gov.uk for further guidance.
If you would like to find out more, please do not hesitate to contact Luscombe Maye’s Rural Professional team on 01364 646 177 or 01392 908 137.
