Farmers planning on making a GLAS III application are now weighing up the actions they should choose for their farms.

Applicants who have environmental assets on their farms will be able to qualify automatically for Tier 1a or 2a where their application will receive priority when it comes to the assessment stage.

Farmers without environmental assets will try to pick certain actions to improve their chances of a successful application.

Depending on the farm’s situation and stocking rate, the following actions can be chosen so that an application can fall into Tier 1b or 2b.

For tillage farmers, those actions include the minimum tillage action or cash crops. Beef, sheep or dairy farmers can choose the low-emission slurry spreading action or wild bird cover to fall into a higher tier.

If there is no environmental asset on the farm and the actions mentioned here are not chosen, a farmer can still apply with a combination of other actions but their application will fall under Tier 3.

If the scheme is oversubscribed, Tier 1 applications will receive priority over Tier 2 and 3 applications.