Decisions with regard to greening have suddenly become very real. Many farmers must now make decisions about how they will comply with the different greening requirements and what changes, if any, will be required on farm.

This week I look at a specific 127.85ha farm which is almost exclusively tillage but with 3.36ha of permanent pasture. This farm is leased in by the grower but I look at it as though it is a standalone farm unit. What will this grower need to do to comply with both crop diversification and ecological focus area (EFA)?

Crop diversification

Let’s look at the requirement for crop diversification first. Land use in 2014 involved four different crops: Winter wheat, winter oilseed rape, spring barley and permanent pasture. The permanent pasture does not count as a crop for crop diversification so in 2014 this farm had the minimum three crops necessary for crop diversification. Or had it? Three crops, yes, but still not compliant based on the 2014 crop areas.

This farm had a total digitised area of 127.85ha with a claimed area of 122.43ha with only some parcels claiming less than the digitised area. Given that most parcels will use the digitised area (minus ineligible features) from 2015, I will base all assumptions on the digitised area.

In 2014, the farm area comprised 95.14ha winter wheat, 26.91ha winter oilseed rape, 2.44ha spring barley and 3.36ha of permanent pasture. All subsequent comments are based on the 2014 areas but these will change for 2015 and the calculations must be based on the areas for 2015.

If the 2014 digitised areas and cropping plan applied in 2015 then there would be 124.49ha of crop land subject to greening. There would be three crops, but the winter wheat would be 76.42% of the cropped area and the maximum individual crop area allowed is 75%. The third and additional crop areas are also specified as being at least 5% of the cropped area but with only three crops sown, the small spring barley area is only 1.96% of the cropped area.

So, while there are three crops grown, this crop make-up does not comply with the greening crop diversification requirement. If sowing a number of crops, plan on the basis that your biggest single crop cannot be greater than 75% (preferably less than 70%) of your crop area and the two biggest crops cannot be greater than 95% of the total (less than 90% is preferable).

In order to be compliant in 2015, this farmer will need to at least treble the area in the smallest crop and take this area from the current winter wheat land. But practical decisions must be made at farm level to help knit at least three crops into a sensible and profitable rotation to help productivity as well as being greening compliant.

As for ecological focus area, this farm has quite an amount of hedges present, some ditches/open drains, and two different watercourses. With 124.49ha of crops, this farm will require at least 6.225ha of EFA. However, as much as 70% of the hedges may not meet the minimum woody requirement for qualification as EFA and farmers must be aware of this specific situation on their farms. The open drains and buffer zones will be guaranteed, along with an estimated one-third of the hedges.

Based on these numbers, I estimate that this farm has about 4.66ha of EFA from hedges, ditches and buffer zones. Some of the buffer zone by the watercourse applies on both sides while more of the area is only farmed on one side. Also, there are over 2m of buffer to the edge of the watercourse in places, but this is less than 1m in other areas and most likely it will be the minimum rather than the average area that will be inspected.

There is also quite a bit of sterile brome along by the watercourse, so the farmer should seriously consider grassing down an additional narrow band by the watercourse and using frequent topping to help prevent brome reseeding and thus eliminate this weed from these areas.

So, allowing for the reasonably certain EFA area originating from farm features, some additional action will be needed to generate at least another 1.565ha of EFA to meet the current 5% requirement. But if this does increase to 7% or 8.714ha from 2017, it makes more sense to consider that at least another 5ha is required as EFA to be safe.

Some specific action will be needed. This could be provided through the equivalent area of fallow land for a few troublesome parts of fields. A number of patches are already in fallow but we know that fallow will need to be a minimum area, even though we do not yet know what this minimum size must be. So 5ha of fallow would do the trick, but this is not an easy solution on rented ground.

Catch crops could also be used ahead of a spring crop to supply EFA. But it will require 16.67ha of catch crop to supply 5ha of EFA or 6.67ha to supply 2ha to meet the 5% level in the near term. The area required as catch crop is also the area that must then be sown to spring crop.

A nitrogen fixing crop/protein crop might also be considered to meet the EFA requirement. This solution would require 2.86ha to supply 2ha EFA (5%) or 7.14ha to supply 5ha EFA at the 7% level. Alternatively, if the farmer was to supply all his 6.225ha EFA with a protein crop, this would require 8.89ha (9ha really) to meet the full EFA requirement (at 5%). And this would be 12.45ha at 7% EFA. Any additional crop area would help provide the third crop for crop diversification. However, rape and beans would be too close in such a rotation.

As a general rule, farmers are advised to remain well clear of all the thresholds with regard to greening as a slight area alteration by an inspector could prove very costly in terms of greening payment.

EFA solutions must be practical

In all cases any solution to the requirements of greening must be based on their practical implementation at farm level.

One might only need 5ha of a crop in EFA, but how will you make the best of that at farm level? Is it of significant benefit in a rotation? Would three times this crop area be more practical and useful?

Sorting out your greening options must involve a solution that is sustainable for you over time.

At farm level, there will be an amount of EFA provided by the natural features, added to by buffer zone requirements on many farms.

After your first inspection you can feel assured that these allowances will apply, but until then it is safer to have a greater area allocated to EFA.

Prudent

For many growers with very indifferent hedges it may be more prudent to use a crop solution to the provision of EFA.

EFA is a notional calculation and so it does not take away from your total cropped area, so having surplus makes sense.

Three crops will prove difficult for a sensible rotation. Having beans and rape within three years could make for a big sclerotinia problem. Non-cereals are more useful in a real rotation.

The premium on protein crops will help and, if widely used, whole crop harvesting could make protein crops more convenient.

Rotations like rape, wheat, oats, wheat and either winter barley or beans wheat and winter barley, make for more satisfactory solutions.

Our dwindling ability to control septoria tritici means that we must decrease our dependence on winter wheat to decrease our harvest exposure if full resistance strikes.