https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/reduce-grassland-management-intensity-next-to-watercourses/
Reduce grassland management intensity next to watercourses
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 improve water quality and soil structure by changing the management of grasslands next to watercourses.
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.
Intensive management of grasslands
Intensive grassland management will result in soil compaction.
This leads to:
- less rainwater filtering into the ground
- erosion caused by surface water runoff
- pollutants passing into watercourses
Intensive management next to watercourses is mostly used on grassland that:
- has high nitrogen (more than 200kg per hectare per year) and phosphate fertiliser inputs
- is intensively grazed
- is cropped for silage, hay or haylage
Pollutants include:
- sediment
- nitrate
- phosphate
- pesticides
- faecal bacteria
Benefits of changing grassland management
Benefits to the farm business include:
- reduced fertiliser costs
- less need for reseeding, sward aeration or sward lifting
- improved soil structure for fields to carry machinery and livestock
- less ditch cleaning due to less build-up of sediment
Benefits to the environment include less:
- nitrate and phosphate loss
- runoff and soil erosion
- soil compaction from machinery
- poaching by livestock
Through boosting soil carbon levels, soil biodiversity and health will improve.
Benefits to the public include:
- better drinking and bathing water quality
- reduced downstream flooding and drought risks
- more plant and aquatic biodiversity
How to reduce grassland management intensity
Identify high input and intensively managed fields at high risk of soil erosion and surface runoff. These can occur as a result of slope, soil type and structure.
Consider:
- a soil management plan
- regular soil testing as part of a nutrient management plan
When managing the sward, you should:
- remove subsoil compaction or surface capping before reseeding
- weed wipe or spot-treat weeds
- cut regularly in the first 12 to 24 months of establishment
- remove any cuttings
- avoid cutting when the soil is wet to prevent further compaction
- only apply manure or fertiliser between early February and mid-August
On historic features, do not subsoil, cultivate or reseed as these activities could damage the features.
Basic grass seed mix for most conditions includes:
- red fescue
- crested dog’s-tail
- smooth stalked meadow grass
- timothy
- cock’s-foot
Choose a seed mix which is suitable for your soil type. Allow some tussocky areas to develop as refuges for insects and other wildlife.
For livestock, you should:
- reduce the number of animals grazing the sward
- remove animals when the soil becomes too wet
- avoid having more than 10% bare ground in a field area
If you are cropping for hay, haylage or silage, you should:
- plan to reduce the amount of nitrogen you use over time
- use less than 100kg of nitrogen per hectare per year sourced from livestock manures
- apply no more than 50kg per hectare per year of nitrogen fertiliser from other sources, where you do not use livestock manures
- check the species composition of the grass ley when you reduce nutrients
- plant legumes to replace nitrogen inputs
- sow a mix of legumes and herbs to improve soil structure and fertility
You must follow the farming rules for water. These require you to take steps to stop manure, fertiliser or soil getting into watercourses.
What a successful outcome will look like
You’ll see:
- cleaner water in local water bodies and watercourses
- fields that do not lose fertile topsoil and nutrients
- better water infiltration
- more sward and insect diversity
- less poaching and compaction in fields
- reduced need for subsoiling
