Find out how farming is changing in National Landscapes.
On 1st January 2021, the Agricultural Transition Period started, a Government plan which is put into place by the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
As part of this period (2021 – 2027), DEFRA will gradually be reducing, and then finally cease, all untargeted Direct Payments.
What Does this Mean?
Direct Payments are paid to farm businesses based on the amount of agricultural land they maintain, and has been in place since 1957. However, evidence suggests that Direct Payments offer poor value for money, and introduce distortionary incentives. There is evidence that they inflate farm rents, and hinder productivity and growth.
For more information, please see the following links:
What will happen next?
The money that would have been spent on the Direct Payments is being planned to be used to support agriculture in a number of ways.
Farmers will be paid to improve the environment, improve animal health and welfare, and to reduce carbon emissions.
The funding will be aimed at three levels of support. These will be:
- Investing in sustainable farming practices
- Creating habitats for nature recovery
- Making landscape-scale change for ecosystems
Some options will be universally open to all farmers and land managers, while others will be more targeted at a smaller number of large projects.
There will also be significant grants made available to support farmers to reduce their costs and improve their profitability, to help those who want to retire or leave the industry, and to create new opportunities and support for new entrants coming into the industry.
DEFRA Tests and Trials – The ‘Farming for the Nation’ Project
Cranborne Chase National Landscape is one of 12 designated Area’s of Outstanding Natural Beauty that took part in a DEFRA Tests and Trials project called ‘Farming for the Nation’.
The final report of the Environmental Land Management Scheme Test can be found here:
The results of a ‘Virtual Workshop’ held with land managers in 2020 with follow up questionnaires can be read here:
The National Landscapes that took part were testing new ways for DEFRA to incentivise environmentally friendly approaches to farming.
While it might seem straightforward on paper, in practice it’s not that easy to measure how ‘good’ or valuable a piece of grassland is other than its capacity for feeding livestock.
What wildlife does it support? How much carbon is it storing? How much rainwater does it absorb compared to concrete or bare cultivated ground, that otherwise might flow into a river or onto a road taking large quantities of soil with it and possible agrochemicals? How do you measure a hedge for its potential as nesting habitat for birds?
These questions are complicated and far reaching, and so require many tests and consultations and discussions.
Farm Payments
The way farmers and land managers get financial support is changing. The Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) is being phased out and replaced with a new approach to payments.
Defra’s ‘Farming is Changing’ document sets out the latest information on farming policy in England from 1 January 2021 and is due to be regularly updated:
A New Approach to Payments
2021 is the start of the seven-year transition away from EU-based rules and schemes.
The transition period will see a new approach which pays farmers and land managers to:
- Improve the environment
- Improve animal health and welfare
- Reduce carbon emissions
- Provide beauty and heritage for all
This will be through providing grants for:
- Environment Land Management (E.L.M.) to produce public goods through nature-friendly farming practices
- Improving farm productivity and prosperity
This change has an impact across all land management practices. We’ll be updating this page regularly to include all the latest information and links.
The End of the Basic Payment Scheme
2021 will be the first year for the phasing out of the Basic Payment Scheme.
The best way to keep payments coming in and ensure you’re ready for the new Environmental Land Management Scheme is to apply for Countryside Stewardship which will be available until 2024 with last application window in 2023.
Anyone in Countryside Stewardship after January 2021 can withdraw from Countryside Stewardship and transfer to the Environmental Land Management scheme with no penalty at agreed exit points.
Farming in Cranborne Chase National Landscape
Eighty-nine percent of Cranborne Chase National Landscape is farmland.
Half of this area is cropped and about a third is grazed, the rest is mostly woodland and set aside land. It is managed in typically large land holdings, there are only eight hundred and forty holdings covering about ninety-eight thousand hectares and a third of these are less than five hectares.
Of the thirty-two thousand National Landscape residents, only six percent are employed in agriculture.
A sustained period of low farm incomes has lead to, among other things, an amalgamation of holdings into larger units and the sale of land to non-farmers. This has been going on as farms try to diversify into non-agricultural enterprises and have concentrated on game shooting to the extent that game cover crops have had a significant visual impact.
Farmer Groups
Farmers and land managers working together can deliver greater benefits, especially at a landscape scale.
Cranborne Chase National Landscape has a large number of farmer groups, who are helped by advisors or ‘facilitators’. We work with these groups and work is funded by existing agri-environment schemes or through additional funding.
We recently received funding from Natural England’s Facilitation Fund to fund the facilitation of our Nadder Valley Farmer Group.
- Allenford
- Chalke Valley Farmer Cluster which is part of the Martin Down Farmer Supercluster which has its own Twitter page with more information
- Nadder Valley
- Tarrant Valley
- Wylye Valley Farmers
For more information about these groups, please contact info@cranbornechase.org.uk.
Countryside Stewardship – Facilitation Fund
Cranborne Chase National Landscape has been awarded funding through the Countryside Stewardship (CS) facilitation fund. The scheme is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and is part of the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE).
Cranborne Chase will be facilitating a project working with the Nadder Valley Farmer Group.
More information is on available on our Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund page.
South Wiltshire Farmland Bird Project
From April 2015 the South Wiltshire Farmland Bird Project broadens its horizons to become the South Wiltshire Farmland Conservation Project (SWFCP).
The area covered by the project is shown by the blue line in the map below. Funding came from Natural England and Wessex Water.
Project adviser Tracy Adams brought together groups of neighbouring farmers in ‘clusters’ to carry out environmental work at a much larger scale than previously when it focused on individual farms.
Tracy facilitated discussion amongst the farmers around what their priorities should be for collaborative action.
This gave total ownership of the environmental improvements on the farm to the farmer, and therefore not dependent upon a government funding scheme or on land designation and is free of the constraints associated with grant schemes.
Examples of projects include large scale habitat for farmland bird species such as restoring numerous dew ponds and improving chalk stream habitat for water voles and brown trout in chalk valleys across Cranborne Chase.
Game Management
If we are to preserve and enhance the natural beauty of the landscape within the National Landscape, then we must understand the forces that have shaped it over the last millennium and which continue to drive changes in the landscape now and in the future.
All the land in the National Landscape is privately owned so we must work together with land managers and the wider community to gain an understanding of how game and its management are sustaining landscape character and identify areas where game management requires assistance to remain sustainable.
Woodlands
The National Landscape has been identified as an Ancient Woodland Priority Area by the Forestry Commission (from 2009 onwards).
Ancient woodlands and trees represent a living cultural heritage, a natural equivalent to our great churches and castles. They are also our richest wildlife habitat and are highly valued by people as places of tranquility and inspiration.
The Forestry Commission are seeking to protect and enhance the ancient and native woodlands of the South West and increase the area of native woodland. This is achieved by offering grants under the English Woodland Grant Scheme and by working in partnership with organisation such as this National Landscape.
For more details see the Forestry Commission Website.
Wood fuels
The National Landscape has helped to part fund the “Coordinated Woodfuel Initative” this scheme provides advice on using wood fuel.
Wood fuel has three main advantages: –
- It helps to reduce heating bills
- It is sustainable and environmentally friendly when compared to fossil fuels – using wood fuel massively reduces your carbon footprint
- It encourages the sustainable management of woodlands within the National Landscape
For more details, please see the document below, prepared by the South Wood Fuel Advice Service:
A Guide to Small Scale Biomass Heating Projects (PDF, 700Kb)
Woodland – Mapping woodland and providing evidence and advice
In 2008 a new project was started entitled “The Trees and Woodlands of the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs: a landscape view”. This document is aimed primarily at land owners and managers, advisers and consultants, but also those people who want to better understand how we came to came to our landscape view. This document will help by providing an evidence base that justifies landscape scale working. The forester or landowner will then be able to make better decisions about their own sites.
As part of this project, a new dataset was created which identifies all the woodland in the National Landscape, regardless of size. All the different kinds of woodland habitat that are found in the National Landscape have been recorded including features such as wooded scrub on the sides of chalk escarpments, small copses in the corners of fields and small ornamental plantations within the setting of larger designed landscapes.
The project methodology can be downloaded below: