Agriculture/Case Study Flashcards
Why do we spread nitrogen / phosphate / potash on crops? What does it do?
Nitrogen (N): Promotes leaf and stem growth and improves overall plant vigor and yield potential
Phosphorus/Phosphate (P): Enhances flower formation and seed production
Potassium/Potash (K): Improves overall plant health and diseases resistance
Sulphur (S): OSR has a high sulphur requirement, crucial for oil production
What price would you expect to pay for a tonne of straw baled in your area?
Barley = £90
Wheat = £85
What price would you expect to pay for a tonne of barley/wheat/OSR/oats?
Malting Barley = £172
Feed Barley = £152
Feed Wheat = £180
Milling Wheat = £204
Bread Wheat = £233
OSR = £385
Milling Oats = £185
Why do farmers use crop rotations?
- Disrupt pest lifecycles
- Manage disease
- Control weeds
- Prevent soil from becoming deficient in specific nutrients
- Protect soil structure
- Spread risk across farming income
Talk me through a crop rotation in your area.
Wheat, 2nd wheat, winter barley, OSR
First wheat followed by a second wheat, then barley as it is harvested early to allow for early drilling of OSR. First wheat then does well after OSR.
Why is oilseed rape used as a break crop?
- As a brassica it breaks the life cycle of cereal-specific pests and diseases
- Oilseed rape has a deep taproot therefore it can improve soil structure and reduce compaction
- Use different herbicides to control grass weeds that are problematic in continuous cereal rotations
- Sown early and harvested early allowing for the distribution of labour and machinery at busy harvest and sowing periods
- Spreads risk across farming income
What crop rotation would you recommend to get rid of takeall?
Substitute second wheat with barley, ploughing and choosing varieties that are less susceptible
Talk me through a typical growing season for a cereal crop
- Cultivate the ground i.e. plough or cultivate
- Sow the crop in late August/September
- Roll the field
- Spray pre emergence
- Spray T1 and T2 in Autumn/winter
- Spread fertiliser in the spring
- Spray T3
- Spread another load of fertiliser late Spring/early Summer
- Spray glyphosate to ripen the crop
- Combine in August/September
Are there any upcoming changes to legislation for landowners in Scotland?
- The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill
- Land holdings over 3000ha (on the mainland) must produce Land Management Plans (LMP) the public can access
- Must engage with the local community on the review of the LMP every 5 years and consider reasonable requests from communities to lease land or buildings;
- Support compliance with the “Scottish Land Rights and Responsibilities Statement”, which the Scottish Ministers produce and review every 5 years.
- Large land holders over 1000 ha will be unable to sell land without obtaining a Lotting Decision first
- If the ministers decide the land must be sold in separate lots, the lots cannot be sold to connected parties
- Transfers not for value are exempt (such as family transfers)
When is BPS guaranteed to be in place until?
May 2025
What scheme is replacing BPS?
BPS is being replaced in 2025 by a new system currently called the Agriculture Reform Route Map.
To gain access to agricultural subsidies, farmers must complete a whole farm plan by carrying out two out of the five requirements before 15th May 2025:
- Carbon audit (every 5 years)
- Soil analysis (20% of soil annually)
- Animal health and welfare plan (two things annually)
- Integrated pest management plan (annually)
- Biodiversity audit (every 5 years)
Tell me about carbon audits
A carbon audit establishes a business’s carbon footprint. It identifies the sources and quantities of greenhouse gas emissions on farms and areas where simple changes can lead to improved efficiency, reduced operating costs and emissions.
The Payment Rate is a standard cost of £500 for an eligible Carbon Audit Claim.
Tell me about a biodiversity audit
The Whole Farm Plan requires farmers to baseline the biodiversity on their entire farm or croft by creating a habitat map.
Farmers should select the most appropriate habitat(s) and features within a land parcel/field or any land which is not currently mapped and does not have a Land Parcel Identification (LPID) or white space that they are responsible for.
As a minimum, they must:
* create a Habitat Map for all land that they are responsible for, excluding seasonal land but including any land that is not currently mapped and does not have a LPID (white space)
* select at least one habitat using the Whole Farm Plan Habitat and Feature Key that best describes the majority of land cover for each field
* provide habitat map details to SGRPID for adding to the LPIS habitat layer
* update the Habitat Map at least once every 5 years
It is recommended – but not mandatory, that that farmers and crofters:
* identify all individual habitats and features that are present in each field
* assess the current condition of habitats
Tell me about soil sampling
- helps farmers target nutrient applications to where they are needed most, improving efficiency of fertiliser use
- determine the current levels of pH, Phosphate (P), Potash (K), and Carbon in the Soil.
- working out the crop P, and K nutrient requirements based on the soil analysis
- Estimate the supply of nutrients from organic manures applied based on standard tables or preferably by manure analysis.
Tell me about the Animal Health and Welfare Plan
Two interventions per year from the below:
- Bull fertility
- Calf respiratory disease
- Cattle: liver fluke
- Cattle: roundworms
- Sheep scab
- Sheep iceberg diseases
- Sheep lameness
- Sheep: liver fluke
- Sheep roundworms
In total livestock keepers can claim for up to £750 in the first year, and £500 in the second year, giving a maximum of £1250 per keeper over two years.
Tell me about the Integrated Pest Management Plan
IPM plans are applicable to any business that uses plant protection products (e.g. pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, nematicides, slug control agents and plant growth regulators).
The process of creating a plan will help a business demonstrate that their use of Plant Protection Products (PPP’s) is justified.
Free Scottish IPM assessment plan tool available on the Plant Health Centre website.
How would I arrange for these to be carried out on my farm? Is there funding?
Funding from the Scottish Government to help farmers prepare
- Carbon audit (£500)
- £30/Ha for soil sampling with a maximum of £600
- £250 per intervention (for two interventions) within the animal health and welfare plans.
- Free Scottish IPM assessment plan tool available on the Plant Health Centre website.
Most agricultural consultants can conduct a carbon audit, soil testing companies such as SoilEssentials can carry out the soil analysis and most large animal vets can assist with animal health and welfare plans.
What do farmers and crofters require to be eligible for BPS?
- Be an active farmer and be involved in agricultural activity.
- Hold BPS entitlements.
- Submit a claim via a Single Application Form (SAF)
- Farm a minimum of three hectares of eligible land and have this land at their disposal on 15 May of the claim year
- Have one eligible hectare of land for each BPS entitlement
- Comply with Greening and a range of Statutory Management Requirements (SMRs) and standards on Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) i.e., Cross Compliance
- Keep comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date records.
What are BPS entitlements? How do you get them?
Eligible New Entrants to farming can apply to the National Reserve for entitlements; other farmers and crofters can obtain entitlements by purchasing, leasing, inheriting them or due to whole holding transfers, business splits or mergers. Entitlements can be transferred by sale or lease, with or without land to another active farmer.
What do you have to do to be classified as an active farmer?
Applicants to the Basic Payment Scheme must meet the definition of a ‘farmer’ i.e., be a natural or legal person (or a group of natural or legal persons) whose holding/production units is/are situated within Scotland. They must also exercise an agricultural activity, e.g., the production, rearing or growing of agricultural products including harvesting.
What are the 2024 payments for each BPS region?
Region 1 = £147.49 + £75.89 = £223.38
Region 2 = £32.52 + £12.86 = £45.38
Region 3 = £9.43 + £4.32 = £13.75
What organisations are there to support farmers?
- Farm Advisory Service
- Tenant Farming Commissioner – Bob McIntosh CBE
- RSABI
- Agricultural Consultants such as Edwin Thompson, Laurence Gould and SAC
Are there restrictions on how much of your land can be farmed?
Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) - businesses with more than 15 hectares of arable land need to ensure that 5% of this land is managed as an EFA unless the exemptions below apply:
- Land certified as organic or in organic conversion.
- Businesses where more than 75% of the arable land is used to grow temporary grass, herbaceous forage, leguminous crops, or fallow.
- Businesses where more than 75% of eligible agricultural area is permanent or temporary grass or herbaceous forage.
Talk me through your re-instatement claim? What costs were involved? Why were additional sprays used? What were the sprays?
- I calculated the time it would take to carry out each operation by considering the size of the field and the job required
- Firstly to pull out shrubs and small trees
- The field was then to be sprayed with glyphosate to kill everything off
- The field was then topped to reduce vegetation
- It was then subsoiled to a depth of 900mm
- It then required to be ploughed
- And power harrowed
- Once there was a level field ready to be drilled, the stones had to be lifted by hand
- The field was then ready to be sown and put into arable production
Give me examples of greening/ecological focus areas
Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) - businesses with more than 15 hectares of arable land need to ensure that 5% of this land is managed as EFA
Fallow Land
Margins
Hedges
Green Cover
Catch Crops
Nitrogen Fixing Crops
Agro-Forestry
Tell me about fallow land
- must have been in an arable crop (including temporary grass) or fallow the year before
- must be a minimum of 0.01 hectares in size
- must be clearly identifiable and distinguishable on the ground from 15 January to 15 July inclusive
You are allowed to: - change the ground cover to establish a wild flower or wild bird seed mix within the fallow area
- temporarily store farm yard manure
- undertake maintenance of field drains in the period 15 January to 15 March, this is limited to investigation (inspection pits, etc.) and replacement of pipes or tiles where existing ‘bursts’ have been identified
Tell me about margins
- must be on, adjacent to, or within five metres of arable land or contiguous to a claimed EFA option
- can be around the margin of a field or splitting two crops within a field
- must be between one and 20 metres wide
- must be a minimum of 0.01 hectares in size
- must be clearly identifiable and distinguishable on the ground from 1 January to 31 December, inclusive
- you must control injurious weeds, invasive weeds and certain other weed species by spot herbicide application or hand rogueing
You must NOT: - clean ditches and spread the spoil on any area which has been claimed as an EFA margin
- graze the margin if it contains or is adjacent to a watercourse (to avoid diffuse pollution).
- store materials (including but not exclusively irrigation pipes, fuel bowsers, seed boxes, bales)
- use for regular access (except for occasional use including for Hay and Silage)
Tell me about hedges
- any hedge having a length of at least 20 metres or a length of less than 20 metres where it meets another hedge at each end. Any gap of less than 20 metres is treated as being part of the hedge
- must be on or within five metres of arable land
- longest edge of the hedge is parallel to the field
- must adjacent to a claimed parcel that is BPS eligible and claimed on your SAF
- can be any height but can only be up to and including three metres wide from the centre of the hedge
You must not: - remove or destroy hedges without the written consent of the Scottish Ministers
- trim hedges or lop branches off trees during the bird nesting and rearing season starting on 1 March and ending on 31 August except for road safety reasons. Hedgelaying can be carried out up to and including 31 March
- cultivate land within two metres of the centre line of a hedge unless one of the following exemptions apply:
- cultivating to establish a green cover where one doesn’t already exist. A green cover excludes crops that are grown for a commercial purpose, e.g. arable crops including crops that are under sown with grass
- cultivating to establish a new hedge
- apply fertilisers (organic manure, chemical or nitrogen) or pesticides within two metres of the centre line of a hedge unless one of the following exemptions apply:
- applications of fertilisers or pesticides to establish a new hedge. This applies from the time the land is prepared for planting the new hedge to the end of the hedge’s third growing season
What is a cover crop?
A crop grown to enhance / protect the soil rather than to be harvested for profit
Give some examples of cover crops?
Legumes, Mustards, phacelia, chicory, linseed
What are the methods of destruction of cover crops?
Spraying off, ripping up, frost, grazing
Tell me about AECS schemes?
- Run for a 5 year period
- You are paid management payments each year and capital payments for each works that you carry out
- Capital payments are for activities such as planting hedges,
- Run by a point based system
