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Create and maintain grass strips
The guidance on this page is for SFI pilot participants only. Please visit GOV.UK for the official Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme guidance.
Find out how land managers can protect and enhance wildlife habitats, water bodies and historic features by creating and maintaining permanent grass strips.
If you’re completing this action as part of the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot, how you do it is up to you.
The advice on this page can help you get better environmental and business benefits, but you do not have to follow it to get paid.
Grass strips
Grass strips are undisturbed areas of permanent vegetation around the edge or within fields.
They provide safe nesting sites, food and shelter for:
- birds, like grey partridges and barn owls
- small mammals, like voles, harvest mice and bats
- invertebrates, including those that eat crop pests, like ground beetles and hoverflies
- amphibians, like newts, in margins near water
They can link habitats and allow wildlife to move across the landscape.
Grass strips protect sensitive habitats and water bodies from soil erosion and runoff of sediment, pesticides and nutrients.
They can protect small historic features from ‘clipping’, where cultivations get too close to the edge of a feature and damage it.
Where to put grass strips
The location depends on what you want to protect or enhance.
Grass strips should not overlap a public right of way.
Hedgerows, trees and wildlife areas
Grass strips work best when they form a network across the landscape. You can use grass strips to protect and link habitats like woodland, in-field trees, hedgerows and grasslands. This will provide feeding and hunting routes for bats and birds.
Grass strips can connect areas where you’re providing resources for invertebrates.
A sunny, sheltered location will be best for most wildlife.
Do not put grass strips where there are rare arable wildflowers, as they need cultivation to thrive. Find out how to cultivate fallows for rare arable wildflowers.
Water bodies
A soil mapping and management plan will help you identify where to put grass strips to reduce runoff and protect water bodies.
Grass strips in the base of valleys or across slopes can help reduce runoff and soil erosion.
You must follow the farming rules for water. These require you to take steps to stop manure, fertiliser or soil getting into water bodies.
Historic features
You can put grass strips:
- on top of small below-ground historic features
- around above-ground historic features like burial mounds
You can use minimum cultivation on larger historic features, or take them out of cultivation.
Register and request an SFI Historic Environment Farm Environment Record (SFI HEFER) to learn more about historic features on your land.
You must find out if you need consent for work on a scheduled monument.
How to establish grass strips
For the hedgerow standard, grass strips must be at least 4 metres wide from the centre of the hedge. For the water body buffering standard they must be 6 metres wide, including 2 metres from the bank top.
You can choose a larger width to suit your field shape and machinery. Wider margins give more protection and wildlife habitat.
You can create a grass strip by natural regeneration or sowing seeds.
Using natural regeneration means the grasses in your margin are local to your area. It’s cheaper than sowing a seed mix but takes longer to establish.
You’ll need to sow a seed mix for grass margins:
- next to water bodies
- protecting historic features
A seed mix establishes more quickly and reduces the risk of soil erosion, which can damage historic features and freshwater habitats.
When to establish
Autumn is the best time to establish a seed mix. There will be less competition from weeds and more moisture in the soil. You can sow in spring, but you may need to increase the seed rate depending on weather and soil type.
For natural regeneration, cultivate between spring and late summer. Comply with GAEC1 when cultivating next to water bodies.
Create your seedbed
Create a well-consolidated, firm, fine, level and weed-free seedbed before establishing to improve germination. This is the most effective weed and slug control method.
Remove any soil compaction. You must find out if you need consent before subsoiling on a scheduled monument.
You can roll seedbeds before sowing if they are uneven after secondary cultivations.
Natural regeneration
Cultivate the soil and let the seeds already in the soil germinate.
Sowing a seed mix
Choose a seed mix that contains native grass species. Grass species that will grow in most conditions include:
- timothy
- cocksfoot
- crested dog’s-tail
- red fescue
- smooth-stalked meadow grass
Species like timothy and cocksfoot create tussocky grass. This provides shelter for insects, spiders and small mammals.
Your seed supplier can help you choose a seed mix and seed rate to best match your land and local conditions.
You can add native wildflowers to the seed mix to provide pollen and nectar for invertebrates.
How to sow a seed mix
Broadcast (scatter) or shallow-drill seeds into bare ground.
Seeds germinate best when scattered on the surface. Shallow drill no deeper than 1cm. Small seeds struggle to germinate when sown deeper than 1cm.
Roll after sowing to keep in moisture and ensure good seed-to-soil contact.
How to manage grass strips
Year 1
Cut strips regularly in the first 12 to 18 months. This controls annual weeds and encourages the grasses to tiller. Avoid cutting in wet conditions to prevent soil compaction.
If you have used natural regeneration it may take longer to control weeds. You may need to continue cutting 3 to 5 times a year for 2 years or more.
Year 2 onwards
You can manage grass strips by cutting, grazing or a mix of both.
You can cut grass strips in the water body buffering standard, but you must not graze them. For the hedgerow standard, you can graze grass strips in grassland but you must not cut.
Avoid cutting or grazing all your strips at the same time. Staggered cutting or grazing means that there is always habitat available for invertebrates and small mammals.
To protect historic features, maintain a dense grass sward with no scrub or bare ground.
To avoid compacting the soil and creating bare ground, do not:
- cut or graze when the soil is wet
- use grass strips for regular vehicle access, storage or moving livestock
- cut hedges or maintain ditches next to grass margins when the soil is wet
Do not apply fertiliser or manure.
Cutting
Cut up to half of the strip area from the crop edge each year. Cut in summer or autumn.
This creates a varied grass height and structure and provides:
- short grass for birds to forage in, like grey partridge chicks
- mid-length grass for species like brown hares
- shelter and nesting places for birds and invertebrates in long, rarely cut, tussocky grass
You can cut the whole margin once every 3 years in autumn or winter to control scrub.
Do not cut grass strips that are hedgerow buffer strips on grassland.
Birds, nests and eggs are protected by law. You must check the grass strip before cutting. If you see signs of nesting birds, delay cutting until birds fledge.
Remove cut vegetation where possible to:
- reduce the risk of it smothering grass species
- remove nutrients, which helps prevent weeds from growing in the margin
You can leave small amounts of finely chopped cuttings if it’s impractical to remove them. Spread cuttings as thinly as possible. A heavy-duty flail will chop up the vegetation and allow it to rot quicker.
Grazing
You can graze the strip each year in summer or autumn.
Do not allow livestock to:
- poach and flatten the margin
- supplementary feed on the margin
To support grazing you may need capital items like fencing, gates and troughs. Read about how to apply for grants for capital items. You must find out if you need consent to install these items on a scheduled monument.
Do not graze grass strips next to water bodies that you use in the water body buffering standard.
Weed control
To control weeds like docks, nettles, thistles and common ragwort, you can spot treat with herbicide using a knapsack sprayer, hand-lance or weed wiper.
What a good grass strip looks like
You’ll see:
- dense grass cover with a range of heights
- few or no weeds, like docks, ragwort, thistles, nettles or invasive non-native plants
- little or no scrub
- little or no bare ground, ruts or poaching
- few or no channels or gullies formed from soil erosion
- more birds, small mammals, insects and amphibians
- cleaner and clearer surface water nearby
- no poaching of banks
For margins that protect historic features, make sure that:
- there is no scrub
- no historic artefacts are coming to the surface
- above-ground historic features keep their height, size and shape
- if you cut, you do not clip earthworks
