The UK Agriculture Partnership: reflections on the first meeting

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Farming across the UK
Grazing marshes/dyke Halvergate Marshes

Even though agricultural policy in the UK is devolved, each country in the union can benefit by working together. The UK Agriculture Partnership is a forum which meets to share technical information on common challenges. The subject of our first meeting was water quality. Our aim was to understand the nature and scale of the …

Video Diary: Farmer Jess Brooks on the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot

The Brooks Family joined the pilot to help us improve the Sustainable Farming Incentive. For over a century, the family has worked on South Thorness Farm, which is found on the north-west coast of the Isle of Wight, within the Hamstead Heritage Coast Area Of Natural Beauty. Listen to how sisters Jess and Sarah, along …

Grazing, agri-environment schemes and environmental outcomes in the uplands

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Payments to better understand moorland
Livestock on hillside

Grazing is an important part of our farming industry and, for many, management of livestock is more than an occupation: it is a way of life. In this guest post, Rob Cooke, Director of the Greener Farming and Fisheries Programme in Natural England explains the relationship between grazing and environmental outcomes.

Landscape Recovery: your questions answered

Boardwalks LNR, Peterborough Cambridgeshire

In February, we launched the first round of the Landscape Recovery pilot. Landscape Recovery is 1 of our 3 environmental land management schemes. To support potential bidders, we hosted a webinar to share information on the application process and answer questions from those thinking of applying. As you can imagine, we received a lot of questions …

Watch episode 3: Land management plans and the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot

Growing-the-goods thumbnail

Through tests and trials, we want to understand the role that land management plans could play in our future schemes.  In the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot, we provided farmers with 3 different land management plan templates. Each template was developed through tests and trials. One of these templates was developed by the Growing the Goods test and trial group. …

Sustainable Farming Incentive: standards, payment rates, and how to prepare

Dry stone walls, Derbyshire Dales

We plan to launch the Sustainable Farming Incentive in June. Today we can share the final standards and payment rates, our approach to the applications process and how to prepare, In this post, I’ll provide an overview and share links to further information on GOV.UK. I’ll also explain how farmers have directly shaped the scheme …

Fertiliser: updates and support

The price of fertiliser has risen dramatically over the past year, but especially in recent months. Multiple global issues, including the war in Ukraine, have reduced gas and ammonium nitrate supply, forcing prices up. We know the impact of this affects the productivity and profit of farms in this country. We want to support our …