The capital grants available under Mid-Tier CSS are aimed at improving water and air quality on farms and estates in England by reducing the amount of diffuse pollution and ammonia being released.

The funding will enable farmers to invest in items such as livestock and machinery hardcore tracks, concrete yard renewal, self-supporting slurry covers, lined bio-beds and the roofing of silage camps, collecting yards, muck heaps, slurry and silage stores.

Alice Johnson, farm business consultant in the Northallerton office of Strutt & Parker, explained that farmers thinking of applying to any of the funding options that require CSFO support must make contact with their local team by early June, despite the deadline for Mid-Tier applications being mid-August.

“The guidance states that you must fill out a CSF support request form and send it to your local CSF mailbox at least 10 weeks before you intend to submit your application to the Rural Payments Agency.

“Given the closing date for Mid-Tier applications is 18 August 2023 this means farmers should get their CSF support request forms in by 9 June, or the guidance says the request will not be considered,” she said.

To be granted approval by the CSFO, applicants will need to demonstrate how the proposed investment will prevent water or air pollution. Ms Johnson explained funding will be prioritised for projects that are expected to achieve the largest improvements in water and air quality and reduction in flood risk.

Farmers can choose to apply for the grants either under the standalone three-year Capital Grants scheme, or as part of a wider five-year Mid-Tier CSS agreement which includes other land management options.

Standalone Capital Grants applications also require CSFO approval, however, these can be requested at any time during the year as there is no hard application deadline for standalone grants.

To keep funding options open, Ms Johnson recommends submitting a CSF request even if farmers are not sure whether to apply for CSS or wait for the new Sustainable Farming Incentives (SFI) to be rolled out this summer.

“At this stage we know that new SFI standards will be rolled out this summer, but we don’t know exactly when. Hopefully, it will be well ahead of the 18 August deadline for Mid-Tier applications, so farmers can make a considered choice between CSS or SFI,” she said.

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Ed Wright, head of Sustainability at Dale Farm, with the new sustainable bottle cap packaging.

While coloured bottle caps cannot be easily recycled, the move to clear caps means that bottles and caps can now be recycled together into food-grade packaging. The switch is estimated to return nearly 60 million caps – 72 tonnes – to such packaging annually.

According to Ed Wright, head of Sustainability at Dale Farm, the move is the latest in a series of measures aimed at enhancing sustainability across the business.

“At Dale Farm we want to lead the dairy sector on sustainability,” he said. “We constantly assess our processes to see where we can improve, and step by step we are improving packaging sustainability across our product range.

“We’re proud to be the first in Northern Ireland to replace all coloured caps with clear caps on our Dale Farm branded milk bottles as well as those we produce for our retail partners,” he added.

Although a small change, it is hoped the new caps will positively impact the cooperative’s environmental footprint in the long term.

The new clear cap bottles will be launched on shelves in early May 2023. Labels will continue to be colour-coded to allow shoppers to distinguish between different types of milk.

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Delivered on behalf of RASE by Innovation for Agriculture (IfA) with support from Harper Adams University, the event took place on 13^th April 2023 on the Harper Adams campus.

Amongst others, it brought to life messages from the ‘2022 Farm of the Future: Journey to Net Zero’ report, which was commissioned by RASE to identify practical steps farmers can take towards decarbonising the industry by showcasing the latest science and its on-farm application.

Speaking at the event, Helen Browning OBE, chief executive at the Soil Association, shared how she undertook a full assessment of her farm business in Wiltshire, producing organic dairy, beef, pigs and cereals.

“I looked at the nutrient balance on the farm, what was going on and what was coming off, by way of N and P especially. We also did a review of our carbon emissions and I wanted to understand what our mitigation options were as part of our ‘getting to net zero’ plan,” she added.

“The results, on the basis of what our soils were doing, along with a small area of woodland and some young agroforestry, showed that we were sequestering 70% of our emissions.”

According to Ms Browning, this still leaves over 1,000 tonnes of carbon being emitted by the farm each year. She is currently exploring natural options for methane inhibition, such as willow and herbal leys, to reduce emissions from livestock, as well as calculating the amount of woodland and hedges needed to offset emissions on the farm.

Louise Manning, poultry farmer and professor of agri-food at the Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology, spoke about how renewable energy can play a role in farm decarbonisation.

She believes that, given there is financial support from government, farmers will decarbonise very quickly if it works for their business model. She shared that the launch of the Renewable Heat Incentive in 2011 enabled her family farm business to increase its woodchip boiler capacity to produce just under 1MW renewable energy, which was used to heat the chicken houses.

The farm also produces 75GW of solar energy, but is currently unable to increase solar capacity due to the grid in Herefordshire being limited to take in additional energy.

“We’re totally held back by the grid capacity, to not only decarbonise further ourselves, but to support our neighbours to decarbonise too. We need to look at how to increase capacity in the grid in some areas of the country, so farmers can play a real role in producing energy and supporting national decarbonisation,” Professor Manning added.

Stacking enterprises is key to resilience

Abi Reader, farmer and deputy president at NFU Cymru, said that of all the methods of farm decarbonisation, she finds sequestering carbon the most difficult to grasp. She added the new farm support payments are currently being developed in Wales, and might potentially include the condition that all Welsh farms must have trees on 10% of land.

“As a farmer I’m looking at that and thinking how do we make this work? But we can grumble about it, or we can see if there’s an opportunity,” she pointed out.

Ms Reader sought counsel from a forester on social media, who assured her that trees should only be grown if they’re going to be useful to the farm business and if they’re going to provide an income within five years. Working together with her parents and uncle, she has now set up an agroforestry trial on a triangle-shaped field with bedrock close to the surface.

The system is comprised of a selection of tree species in rows, as short rotation coppice, which can be harvested within two to five years. The wood from the harvesting can be used to produce various low-carbon materials, such as concrete or plaster.

Between the rows of trees, Ms Reader plans to grow another crop called Sita. “It’s like a cross between a sycamore sapling and a maize plant,” she said. “It has massive leaves which are supposedly huge suckers of carbon and rhizome roots. It’s also a high protein crop which could potentially displace soya.”

Meanwhile, Stephen Briggs, arable farmer and head of technical development at IfA, also spoke about the benefits of agroforestry. Mr Briggs has introduced trees to his arable system on Bluebell Farms in Cambridgeshire, which has helped the farm make the most of available sunlight.

“A wheat crop only uses 65-68% of the available solar radiation, if we used 100% there wouldn’t be any weeds,” he pointed out.

“Nature worked this out a long time ago – it’s about different species, different times, different places to catch as much of the sunlight as possible. In our farming system we’ve chosen to stack enterprises. We’ve stacked productive fruit trees, pollen and nectar areas and crop production all in the same field.”

Through agroforestry, Bluebell Farms is now sequestering around 4.5 tonnes of carbon per hectare. Mr Briggs highlighted the system is also about 20% more productive than monoculture due to the stacking up enterprises, but is also more complex to manage.

Finally, he added farmers should strive to take control of the changes in the industry rather than letting it happen to them. “Change is constant in our industry. We’re pretty good at adapting to change, but we need to be driving that change and controlling it, rather than it being done to us.

“Part of that is benchmarking to measure where you’re starting from and moving to, also stack enterprises for resilience, harvest the opportunities available to you and only do things you enjoy,” Mr Briggs concluded.

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Having awarded over 2,000 STEPS grants to date, Severn Trent’s aim over the course of 2023 is to continue to partner with more farmers and landowners across the water company’s 48 priority catchments.

To broaden the outreach of STEPS, this year match funding is available for Closed Transfer Systems (CTS), which enable fast, clean and safe chemical transfer to and from sprayers. CTS are a great alternative for pesticide management, especially for farms that can’t accommodate a full-size pesticide wash down area.

Funding to help improve biodiversity and protect natural habitats is also available under the remit of ‘Spring STEPS’. This scheme has a shorter application window ending on 31^st October, while farmers can apply for the main STEPS funding until 31^st December 2023.

Dr Alex Cooke, principal catchment management scientist at Severn Trent, explained that both elements of STEPS offer flexible funding options for a wide range of on-farm environmental projects.

“The main STEPS match funding is available to those in priority catchments to address issues such as nitrates, pesticides and cryptosporidium reaching watercourses and help to keep our rivers healthy,” she said.

Options for different catchment areas include:

Pesticide catchment areas:

• Closed Transfer Systems (CTS) for pesticides
• Pesticide washdown areas, including roofing
• Riverside grass margins
• Biobeds and biofilters
• Alternative weed management in grassland fields
• Precision pesticide application equipment

Nitrate catchment areas:

• Cover crops
• Grass margins

Cryptosporidium catchment areas:

• Livestock fencing along watercourses
• Hard bases for drinking troughs
• Roofed livestock handling and manure storage areas
• Constructed wetlands

While farmers can choose an array of funding options, Dr Cooke strongly recommends choosing a priority item specific to the catchment to ensure applications are competitive. This could include the new closed transfer system, pesticide washdown areas, cover crops or livestock fencing.

“‘Farmer innovation’ options are also available,” she continued. “In instances where the main STEPS options aren’t appropriate for your farming business, these options allow farms to suggest an alternative way to help protect water quality and the environment, that benefits the individual enterprise.”

Meanwhile, Spring STEPS works in a similar format to the wider grant programme with a focus on biodiversity projects. Available funding options include:

• Annual pollinator mix
• Planting herbal leys
• Wildflower margins and mini meadows
• Feeding farmland birds
• Flowering summer cover crops
• Spring sown bird seed crops

Dr Cooke encouraged farmers and landowners to visit the Severn Trent website or contact their local agricultural adviser to find out more.

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According to Ms Wilson, identifying the carbon footprint of a business is the first vital step towards being able to quantify the contribution the farm is making to climate change.

In practice, this means determining the quantity and sources of carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emitted from the farm, which highlights current sequestration and offsetting options as well as future opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Using Farm Carbon Toolkit’s free carbon calculator, farmers can measure their emissions and identify where the farm might currently be holding carbon in its woodlands or hedgerows.

Created by farmers for farmers, Farm Carbon Toolkit provides tools and services to measure carbon impact and runs projects with farmers that inspire real action on the ground.

The company’s vision is a farming sector that minimises its carbon emissions and maximises carbon sequestration, whilst producing quality food and a wide range of public goods, all produced by resilient and profitable farm businesses.

Farm Carbon Toolkit spends a lot of time measuring current soil carbon storage, working with farmers to make changes that reduce GHG emissions and improve soil health, and using information from measurements to support landowners in making impactful decisions.

Speaking of the potential benefits of managing carbon on-farm, Ms Wilson listed several reasons why farmers should consider getting involved:

• Policy drivers – UK net zero by 2050 goal
• Supply chain pressure
• It makes business sense
• It allows for more informed and better decision making
• It creates business resilience
• Provides a much-needed positive narrative
• Future-proofing
• Income generation opportunities

Ms Wilson explained the bulk of carbon dioxide emissions in agriculture come from deforestation and fossil fuel use when planting, harvesting, transporting and processing crops. Meanwhile, nitrous oxide emissions are related to how soils are managed on a farm, along with fertilisers and manure.

The third compound making up a large part of GHG emissions, methane, is released by livestock production, as well as manure and slurry storage, application and management.

Using the example of an average arable farm, Ms Wilson outlined the various sources of emissions and in what proportion they contribute to the farm’s total carbon footprint:

• Nitrogen fertiliser production and application (60%)
• Fuel use and field operations – such as different cultivation strategies, diesel use (20%)
• P and K fertiliser/manures/liming (10%)
• Sown seeds – i.e. transporting seeds to the field for planting (just under 10%)
• Crop protection (1-2%)

In working towards reducing emissions and ultimately achieving a reduction in input costs, she once again stressed the importance of farmers measuring their own carbon impact to determine hotspots and areas with scope for improvement.

Mitigation strategies

When it comes to the practical side of lowering a farm’s carbon footprint, Ms Wilson highlighted three key areas of focus: reducing energy usage on farm (cultivation strategies, diesel use, smart farming); increasing fertiliser use efficiency; and exploring ways of storing more carbon on the farm (such as by increasing woodland and hedgerows).

Specifically for arable farmers, she recommended reducing energy and fuel use through more efficient machinery usage, as well as transitioning to alternative fuels or electrical power as a possible option. Moreover, precision agriculture and tillage practices can reduce reliance on artificial fertilisers, helped by the use of cover crops and/or under-sown crops.

Emissions from mineralisation can also be reduced by mitigating soil disturbance and making adjustments to the management system relating to tillage practices and rotations, she added.

Regarding energy usage, Ms Wilson said: “Although energy costs may seem insignificant to the overall costs of an agricultural business, reducing these costs can lead to a competitive advantage and as a result increased profitability.”

She noted there’s a real economic benefit to cutting fuel and energy usage on farms, and claimed farmers can save 10% on these costs without any impact on bottom line. This equates to ten tonnes of CO₂ saved per year and annual cost savings of £2,000.

Bringing a real-life example, Ms Wilson explained how changing the establishment option for a single crop within the rotation of an arable farm has enabled the business to achieve tangible savings:

“On an arable farm using on average 105 litres of red diesel per hectare, a 10% reduction in red diesel use reduced the farm carbon footprint by 2% per kg grain sold and saved £2,500 on the fuel bill.”

While it’s not possible to eliminate all emissions from agriculture, Ms Wilson said taking action is intricately linked to improving business efficiency, resilience, and the sector’s ability to provide that much-needed climate solution.

“Farmers and growers are at the front line of climate change both in terms of being at risk but also through delivering solutions,” she added.

Concluding her talk, she urged farmers to:

• Understand their baseline
• Evaluate their options and the impact those will make
• Start by looking for the easy wins
• Join the network and spread a positive message in the industry
• Get involved

For more information on how to get started, visit farmcarbontoolkit.org.uk.

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Hosted by the Green Finance Institute and backed by Defra, the group’s work will expand that of the Green Technical Advisory Group (GTAG) – currently advising government on the design and implementation of a UK Green Taxonomy – to help accelerate investment into sustainable agriculture and fisheries.

With three-quarters of UK FTSE All-Share firms ‘highly dependent’ on natural capital, encouraging private investment into nature to strengthen investment opportunities and scale up nature markets is a key element in ensuring the future health and resilience of the UK economy.

Lord Benyon, Environment and Green Finance minister, said these efforts will help drive positive change in private finance and address the pressing issue of nature decline.

“To restore landscapes and ensure thriving plants and wildlife, we need to mobilise much-needed investment into the natural environment and prioritise clean and resilient growth,” he said.

“The government has backed the development of this group to support long-term, sustainable nature recovery as part of our target to stimulate at least £500 million of private investment a year into nature’s recovery by 2027.”

The LNAS Advisory Group was born following GTAG’s recommendation for the government to adopt the majority of the EU Taxonomy Technical Screening Criteria (TSC) with the exception of segments deemed unsuitable for the UK based on advice from the new group.

Dr Rob Bradburne, chief scientist at The Environment Agency, was appointed as chairman of the LNAS Advisory Group, the members of which represent stakeholders from across finance, farming, fisheries and the environment. Dr Bradburne emphasised the urgent need for private sector funding to help the UK in meeting its nature and climate targets.

“Channeling capital to facilitate a thriving natural world where habitats and species are diverse and abundant is essential for our food and economic security, as well as efforts to tackle climate change,” he said.

“A science-based UK Green Taxonomy that works for the market, with robust nature and environmental criteria will help direct capital towards activities and investments where more private sector investment is urgently needed to assist the UK in meeting its nature-related goals.”

The government’s main climate and environment targets include:

• Stimulating at least £500m of private investment per year by 2027 to support nature recovery – rising to at least £1bn per year by 2030.
• Legally binding targets to improve the environment in England, for example halt the decline in species populations by 2030, and then increase populations by at least 10% greater than 2030, by 2042.
• Legally binding carbon reduction targets of 78% reduction against 1990 levels by 2035 and net zero by 2050.

The LNAS Advisory Group will initially focus on developing criteria for sustainable agriculture and fisheries, for which it plans to take a novel and holistic approach taking into account climate mitigation and adaption needs and also wider considerations relating to:

• Sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources
• Transition to a circular economy
• Pollution prevention and control
• Protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems

Subsequently, the group will work on developing the climate adaption elements of the taxonomy by considering the role of infrastructure and also nature-based solutions in delivering adapted and resilient systems in the UK.

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Opening the conference, Nick Banks, finance partner at accountancy firm Scrutton Bland, highlighted the various challenges presented to farmers over the last 12 months.

These include parliament turmoil, soaring inflation, extreme weather events, avian flu, the Ukraine conflict and skyrocketing prices, all of which have caused input costs to outweigh outputs in many businesses.

As subsidies diminish, Mr Banks stressed tax planning is more important than ever, as well as reviewing the farm financial model on a regular basis.

Other than re-evaluating the cost of production, navigating the next 12 months will mean farmers might have to consider investment in diversification and exploring the opportunities around emerging carbon markets, Mr Banks said. He then handed over to Kerriann McLackland, head of land (South East) at the Environment Bank, who provided further insight.

Biodiversity Net Gain: An on-farm revolution

BNG is set to become a statutory requirement for all developments from November 2023, as outlined in the Environment Act 2021. From this date onwards, developers will be required to demonstrate, as part of their planning obligations, how they’re going to replace any habitat that’s lost during the development and provide an additional 10% gain, with some local authorities seeking to increase this to 20-25%.

While developers should look to minimise habitat loss on-site where possible, many will need to look at off-site opportunities for habitat creation, which is where farmers and landowners can get involved.

According to Ms McLackland, BNG has the potential to provide farmers with a stable income stream amid ongoing uncertainties surrounding environmental schemes and government policy.

“Farmers have the land, skills and knowledge to create and manage habitat, and you can provide that service to developers and receive income in turn under various arrangements,” she explained.

Exploring the concept further, she said developers will need to follow a set mitigation hierarchy, that is:

• Minimise damage within the development
• On-site habitat creation
• Off-site habitat creation
• Statutory credits

The latter will be issued by the government as a last resort to developers with sufficient evidence for using this option. The money paid for the credits will then be used to invest in habitat creation elsewhere in England.

However, this option will come at a significant cost to developers, Ms McLackland said. “The Government wants to deter developers from using statutory credits with pricing them at a level to put them off, as they want to see the market providing the new and additional habitat.”

Meanwhile, Natural England has developed a tool for measuring habitat loss (Biodiversity Metric 4.0), which will also be used by any off-site BNG provider when trading units of biodiversity.

As for what off-site mitigation looks like, Ms McLackland said the land can still remain a farm landscape as long as habitat creation is being managed by the farmer or third party under agreement with the developer.

“It’s very much about farming where your major output shifts to nature conservation with food production being an ancillary output,” she explained, saying the concept is a “flip on its head” from what many farmers are currently doing, where main output is food and secondary outputs are nature and habitat.

BNG models – risks & rewards

According to the speaker, there are three models of how landowners can get involved in providing off-site mitigation, each with different levels of risk and reward. The model most suited to farm businesses will vary with each individual farm, as well as appetites for risk and reward, and how it sits with other business ventures.

The model offering the highest income (and also the highest risk) is the direct sales model, in which farmers are responsible for creating the habitat on their farm. They are also in a direct relationship with the developer, to whom they sell the units of improved ecological value of the land, Ms McLackland said.

As there is no other party involved, this model provides farmers with the highest income from BNG. “On the flip side, it is also the highest risk model, as you would be carrying all the risks of making sure you can create the habitat and bearing all the costs of initial creation and recreation should the habitat fail,” she explained.

In addition, farmers would be directly responsible to the local planning authority for monitoring the site and demonstrating the habitat is meeting the requirements of the Biodiversity Metric. It would also be the farmer’s responsibility to find the developer willing to buy the units they offer, Ms McLackland added.

Another model for trading BNG units is via a brokerage service, where a so-called ‘middle man’ matches up units that farmers have to sell with what developers need and takes a slice of the profit for doing so.

While there are an increasing number of these models, Ms McLackland said they vary with the level of ancillary support they provide and involve a medium-level risk to farmers.

The third and lowest risk model is the Environment Bank approach, where farmers enter into a third-party agreement to share the risk of selling BNG units and receive a secure income in return.

This approach involves signing a 33-year Farm Business Tenancy Agreement with the company that sets out how the land is going to be managed over that time period.

Sharing more detail, Ms McLackland said: “We create the new habitats, meet all the capital costs of creation, then we lease it back to you for 33 years minus a day and you carry out the management.

“The income comes to farmers in two forms: the rent that we pay for the head lease, and the management payments we pay to you to keep the habitat in the agreed condition.”

She added the management plan for the land can be adapted and changed according to the needs of the farm to allow the business to continue to grow. However, entering into the agreement is a long-term commitment, and in many cases, it may involve an intergenerational change to consider, she pointed out.

Integration with other payment schemes

Answering the most common questions around BNG, Ms McLackland said income from habitat creation is stackable with some but not all elements of environmental schemes like Countryside Stewardship. At the same time, farmers will still be able to claim BPS on the managed land for as long as the payment scheme exists.

Regarding the effect of habitat creation on farm productivity, the Environment Bank works with farmers and landowners to ensure the agreement is not only compatible with wider farming activities but enhances those. The scheme is also open to tenant farmers subject to the landowner’s approval.

Once the 33-year agreement expires, farmers are under no obligation to take any further actions, Ms McLackland said. However, the scheme does need to be looked at as a long-term land use change, as legislation such as environmental impact assessments are likely to make it difficult to simply revert the land back to conventional farming, she stressed.

Other risks to consider when it comes to BNG income include:

• Timing – when is the land needed
• Liability – who is responsible if BNG doesn’t occur
• Financial – how secure is the income stream
• Taxation – how will BNG affect CGT and IHT

According to Ms McLackland, the Environment Bank is currently in the process of creating habitat banks in every local planning authority throughout England and has plenty of scope for more sites.

Land that is most likely to be accepted into the scheme are sites with a low ecological value – such as arable sites or grassland with low species diversity – and those that offer some strategic potential in terms of how the land aligns with other existing habitats.

Moreover, the Environment Bank scheme requires a minimum land size of 20ha and no existing schemes that could cause conflict in the agreement. Most importantly, the company is looking for landowners who have the right mindset and are interested in operating this as a diversification on their farm, Ms McLackland concluded.

For more information on how to get involved, visit environmentbank.com.

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Farming 900 acres of all arable, including potatoes and daffodils bulbs, over a mix of owned, rented and contracted land, Willie got involved with the project, run by SAC Consulting, to experiment with different regenerative methods, from floatation tyres to solar energy, to see how they would improve the soil, crop quality and profit margins.

“We’ve always been proactive at Ardoch of Gallery with trials and seeing how we can progress the farm,” explains Willie. “We are a traditional Angus family farm, so we need to be constantly looking at ways to make the business more profitable. I was curious about this more regenerative approach, both for improving the business now but as much, especially as my children grow up and my son is showing aspirations to take over, for the next generation. We took livestock out of the rotation when we had to sell the cattle during the BSE years, and I wanted to see if there were other ways we could be doing a better job to boost the soil and wider environment.”

Running cold stores for bulbs in the summer and potatoes during the winter, the farm has high energy usage. Through the FFBC programme, the Officers looked at various renewable options and decided solar panels were the best fit for their system. Since 2017, Willie says these have outperformed the predictive figures, helped by some good summers in recent years, which has been very welcome with the recent increase in energy costs. There’s still reliance on the main grid over the winter, but demand is largely covered by the panels in the summer. Wind turbines were also considered, but they were advised by SSE that it did not have the capacity to add the farm’s energy to the grid.

Soil was a key focus during the three-year project (2015-18) and, continuing this, where Willie has seen significant improvements. Aidan Monaghan of SOYL came to speak to the group of farmers formed around the FFBC project. Using more detailed soil sampling, satellite imagery and a fertiliser spreader with variable rate capability we are now able to feed the crop the appropriate nutrition. Willie says that while he may not have reduced inputs, he’s being smarter with how he uses them, resulting in a much more even crop evidenced by the GPS mapping on the combine.

Having seen the compaction of the soil by digging soil pits at the start of the project, Willie introduced floatation tyres and the combine is on tracks, which has resulted in better root structure as well as yields: “The sure sign is you can’t see any wheel tracks from the previous rotation. Not everything we tried worked, though. Cover crops weren’t great, but the understanding around these has moved on so much since we looked at it – the different mixes for particular soils, the circumstances they’re grown in and the Scottish climate. We’d definitely look at it again as it would work well with early harvest of bulbs.

“David Ross at SAC Consulting is absolutely key to making things happen in this area through his drive and enthusiasm. If I hadn’t been part of FFBC we wouldn’t be as far down the road, but I definitely feel we’re more ahead of the game and are quicker to try new things. I am really appreciating seeing what the current FFBC farmers are doing with the soil regenerative agriculture group approach; learning from each other is so important. We all need to work together to make it happen. My agronomist Gordon Tannock at Agrii has also played an important part. Involved at every FFBC meeting and the link between us and SOYL, he’s been so much more than an agronomist and is integral to the farm’s overall management.”

Willie now has a straw-for-dung arrangement with a neighbour, which he wanted to introduce in the absence of livestock. This has increased the number of bugs, worms and insect life in the soil. On his owned land, he has planted wildflower headlands with seed subsidised through supplying Asda/IPL with potatoes, and says the wildlife is “phenomenal”. He min-tills some land, but strip tilling is not currently viable.

The family has started a haulage company to bring in diversified income, and going forward, battery storage is on the radar along with a second solar array, but Willie is waiting for the technology to advance.

David Ross of SAC Consulting said this process has made the farmers keeping in touch with the work of FFBC more aware of what can be done to make steady changes to sustain their farms into the future.

“Many of the measures we explored with Willie did not bring an instantaneous return, but it’s great to see, five years after the end of the project, the ways in which he continues to review processes to make marginal gains that are consistently pushing yields and the business on.”

For more information on Farming for a Better Climate, visit www.farmingforabetterclimate.org or follow the project on Facebook and Twitter @SACFarm4Climate.

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The schemes, namely the Net Zero Growth Plan and the Nature Markets Framework, incorporate evidence on the role of robust monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions on farms.

A lack of confidence in existing tools for farmers to measure their emissions and inconsistency in the results has led to low uptake of available support from the industry. In response, the government has developed a harmonised methodology for assessing carbon footprint and will set out how farmers will be supported in measuring and reducing their emissions – including from livestock, nutrient management, and farm equipment – by 2024.

Farming minister Mark Spencer said: “We’ve been listening to the farming sector, and the measures announced today will not only help them to calculate their carbon footprint, but also open up new financial opportunities, such as combining private commercial opportunities with our new farming schemes support.”

Through the new Nature Markets Framework, the government is accelerating the growth of these markets to create more opportunities for farmers to access private sector funding for delivering positive outcomes for nature.

The framework will support nature markets to grow in a way that makes them fair, effective and accessible to farmers. In addition, the Green Finance Institute will develop an online toolkit to help farmers identify and access private payments for environmental benefits.

Advice for accessing nature markets is available through the Landscape Recovery development phase, with the government also looking at facilitating collaboration through Countryside Stewardship.

Moreover, the government is seeking to raise over £1 billion per year in private finance for nature’s recovery by 2030, ensuring farmers receive compensation for their efforts and are able to build on existing projects.

The measures announced complement support that is already in place to help the agricultural sector reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reach net zero by 2040, such as Environmental Land Management schemes.

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The SFI payment scheme aims to encourage sustainable food production while reducing the environmental impact of farming. Using a theoretical model farm and applying all options that will be available by summer 2023, GSC Grays experts have calculated SFI payments could exceed historic Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments (£232.22/ha in 2020).

However, to achieve the higher rate, farmers must already manage the land within a regenerative system or be prepared to make the necessary investments and changes to their farming operations, GSC Grays added.

These include incorporating cover crops and companion crops within arable rotations, the widespread use of legumes within improved grassland, abandoning insecticides, investing in precision farming equipment, switching to a no-till system and establishing environmental buffer strips and plots.

Farmers must also note that payment rates per hectare will vary according to farm size, and larger farms could see some payments diluted by virtue of their scale.

Following Defra’s February announcement of six additional standards for SFI and indication of payment rates for a further 4 standards available in summer 2023, GSC Grays has put together a table showing what this means in practice.

The table (see below) is based on a 200 ha mixed farm comprising 100 ha of arable land, 70 ha of improved grassland and 30 ha of unimproved grassland with an extensive application of the SFI Standards, assuming options are maximised where possible.

It should be noted that ‘Avg. Payment’ rates for some standards listed in the table will vary by farm, as standards combine a variety of payment rates and ambition levels, resulting in varying averages. Moreover, there are still grey areas within the SFI guidance such as the requirements and confirmed payment rates of the standards to be released this summer.

Jamie Charlton, GSC Grays farm business consultant, said: “Up to now, the payment rates released by DEFRA to encourage the transition to a regenerative farming model have not provided sufficient financial incentive to justify making the switch.”

However, with further standards now on the way, he added: “ We expect to see an increase in businesses questioning whether their current farming system is the most profitable and sustainable within the new support payment structure.”

While the cost of applying these transitions will vary by farm, Mr Charlton said these must be evaluated against the possible cost-savings achieved as a result. These could include reduced fuel consumption and fertiliser use, improved water retention due to better soil health, and higher yields due to enhanced ecosystem services.

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