https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/reduce-livestock-numbers-to-protect-sensitive-areas-and-water/
Reduce livestock numbers to protect sensitive areas and water
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 manage livestock numbers to improve water and air quality and protect historic features in sensitive habitats.
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.
About livestock numbers
Too many livestock can compact the soil and create bare ground. This can lead to runoff on to sensitive habitats nearby. Runoff can carry:
- polluted soil particles
- faecal bacteria
- nitrates and phosphates
To prevent runoff, you can reduce livestock numbers and move them to less sensitive areas.
Sensitive habitats include:
- watercourses like streams and rivers
- open water bodies like lakes, ponds and wetlands
- coastal waters, including bathing waters and shellfisheries
- bogs, heathland and ancient woodlands
- historic features at risk from livestock erosion or poaching
Livestock include cattle, sheep, pigs, and minority-farmed species like deer, goats, alpacas and buffalo.
Benefits of reducing livestock numbers
Less soil compaction can:
- improve water infiltration
- reduce and slow runoff
- reduce the risk of flooding
- increase carbon storage in the soil
Livestock and manure produce greenhouse gases and ammonia. Reducing your overall livestock numbers will mean less emissions to the air.
Improving water and air quality will also support the plants and wildlife that use the habitats.
Benefits to your farm include:
- improved grass growth and quality
- lower feed requirements and cost with fewer livestock and improved feed quality
- less manure produced so less storage space needed
- better animal health and welfare by reducing foot disease and fluke infestations from wet soils
- greater protection of historic features
- a better environment for the plants and wildlife that use the habitats
How to reduce livestock numbers
Before you start
You must not move livestock on to other sensitive fields. Sensitive fields can include land:
- that already has a range of wildlife
- that is vulnerable to soil erosion
- with historic features
You need to identify:
- where to house or relocate livestock if excluding animals from fields over winter
- fields available for grazing
- forage and feed availability for the relocated livestock
- any infrastructure required like fencing or water troughs
Read about how to apply for grants for capital items, including resurfacing of gateways.
To work out where to reduce livestock numbers, you can complete a runoff and soil erosion risk assessment.
You might need to reduce livestock production on fields that border sensitive habitats.
If your land is in a Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) area you can get advice from your local CSF officer.
Register and request an SFI Historic Environment Farm Environment Record (SFI HEFER) to learn more about historic features on your land.
When to reduce livestock numbers
Reduce the number of livestock in your fields according to your soil management plan.
Remove livestock from your fields when the soil is saturated and at risk of poaching, usually in winter. Over winter, you can put livestock on drier fields not connected to watercourses or sensitive habitats.
Keep lower livestock numbers near sensitive habitats and water throughout the year to provide constant environmental benefit.
Supplementary feeding
You can supplementary feed.
You must follow the farming rules for water. These require you to take steps to stop manure, fertiliser or soil getting into water bodies.
Place feeders on the driest parts of the field and move them regularly. Do not place them:
- on historic features
- next to a watercourse
- on the most species-rich areas of the field
Where you can reduce livestock numbers
You can reduce livestock numbers on one field, groups of fields or all fields on the farm. You’ll get most benefit on fields that are prone to flooding and soil damage.
How you’ll know if you’ve been successful
You’ll see:
- little or no bare ground from poaching
- fewer urine patches and less manure
- few or no channels formed from soil erosion
- no pooling or runoff of water as infiltration into the soil improves
- no mud from soil runoff on adjacent tracks and roads
- cleaner ditches with less sediment from runoff
- improved grass growth during the main growing season
- historic features with no evidence of ruts or poaching on earthworks
For water you could see:
- clearer water entering watercourses, with less sediment
- less algae in the water from reduced phosphate and nitrates
- more freshwater wildlife like insect larvae and fish
- more birds and mammals using the water
For land habitats you should see:
- less growth of nitrogen-tolerant species like grass and nettles
- more nitrogen-sensitive species like heather, mosses and lichen
- more variety and abundance of wildflowers and grasses in the grazed grassland
