CAB11: Cultivated areas for arable plants
What you must do to get paid for this CSHT action and advice on how to do it.
This action is part of Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT). You must read the CSHT guidance before you apply.
Duration
5 years
How much you’ll be paid
£660 per hectare (ha) per year
Action’s aim
This action’s aim is that there are fallow cultivated margins or plots with:
- a fine surface suitable for wild arable plants to establish from the soil seed bank when they’re cultivated in the spring or autumn
- natural vegetative cover throughout the growing season until the end of the summer
The purpose of this is to:
- allow scarce and declining wild arable plants to increase their populations over time
- provide areas of less densely vegetated ground for insects such as bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies
- provide summer foraging habitats for farmland birds such as grey partridge and turtle dove
Where you can do this action
You can do this action on eligible land that’s located below the moorland line.
Eligible land
You can do this action on land that’s:
- an eligible land type
- registered with an eligible land cover on your digital maps
- declared with a land use code which is compatible with the eligible land cover
| Eligible land type | Eligible land cover | Compatible land use code |
|---|---|---|
| Arable land used to grow crops | Arable land | Land use codes for arable crops or leguminous and nitrogen-fixing crops |
| Temporary grassland | Arable land | TG01 |
| Arable land lying fallow | Arable land | FA01 |
Available area you can enter into this action
Total or part of the available area in the land parcel.
Rotational or static action
This action is rotational or static. This means you can either:
- move the action every year
- keep it at the same location each year
Limited area action
This action has a 25% limit on the amount of land that can be entered into a CSHT agreement. The limit will apply to the area of land with limited area actions in CSHT and SFI agreements added together. For example, if you have 10% of land in an SFI limited area action, you can only have 15% of land in a CSHT limited area action.
Read section 3.4: ‘Actions with a limited area’ in the CSHT applicant’s guide for more information.
What to do
Your Natural England adviser will assess your land. They’ll work with you to adapt and agree the activities you must do to achieve this action’s aim. All mandatory activities will be set out in your agreement document.
To get paid for this action, you must:
- create the fallow plots or margins either annually or once every 2 years (as agreed with your adviser)
- cultivate to create a fine soil surface in spring or autumn (or both)
You must not:
- apply fertilisers, manures or lime
- apply pesticides – you may be able to use herbicides to spot-treat or weed-wipe for the control of injurious weeds, invasive non-native plant species, nettles or other plants if this has been agreed with your Natural England adviser
- disturb any cultivated areas unless agreed with your Natural England adviser
- use the cultivated areas as regular access tracks for vehicles
In the final year of this action’s duration, you must do this action until the end of the agreement or action end date, whichever is earlier.
When to do it
You must do this action each year of its duration.
Evidence to keep
You must keep evidence to show what you have done to complete this action. If it’s not clear that you have done this action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve its aim, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) may ask for this evidence.
You must supply the evidence if they ask for it, including:
- field operations at a land parcel level
- associated invoices
- photographs
Other actions or options you can do on the same area as this action
You can do the following actions or options on the same area in a land parcel as this action.
Some actions or options can only be done on the same area if they’re done at a different time of year to this action.
| Scheme | Action or option code |
|---|---|
| SFI 2024 actions | CSAM1, CSAM2, SOH1, AGF1, AGF2, OFC3, OFC4, OFM4, OFM5, AHW6, PRF1, PRF2, CIPM1, CNUM1 |
| SFI 2023 actions | SAM1, SAM2, IPM1, NUM1 |
| CSHT actions | CHS3, CHS9, CSP13, CSP14, CSP15, CWS1, CWS3, CSP21, CSP20, CAGF1, CAGF3, CAGF2, CAGF4 |
| CS options | AB9, AB2, HS3, HS9, OR3, OR4, OT3, OT4, SW5, SW6 |
| ES options | N/A |
You can do the following actions or options on the eligible boundaries of a land parcel entered into this action:
- CSHT actions: CWT3, CHRW4
- SFI 2024 actions: CHRW1, CHRW2, CHRW3, BND1, BND2, WBD10
- SFI 2023 actions: HRW1, HRW2, HRW3
- CS option BE3 (management of hedgerows)
Consents, permissions and licensing requirements
To apply for this action, you’ll need:
- Scheduled Monument Consent from Historic England for any work on scheduled monuments
- consent from Natural England for any activity on land designated as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI)
You may need to:
- agree an implementation plan or feasibility study with your Natural England adviser
- get advice from your Natural England adviser if you have other historic or archaeological features on your agreement land
- get a wildlife licence from Natural England if your activities affect a protected species or their habitat
All historic and archaeological features (including scheduled monuments) are identified in your Historic Environment Farm Environment Record (HEFER).
If you’re a tenant, it’s your responsibility to check whether your tenancy agreement allows you to complete what’s required in the actions you choose. You may need your landlord’s consent.
Capital grants to support this action
If you need to complete an implementation plan or a feasibility study before you apply, you can apply for capital grants plans funding.
You can also apply for capital items to help you achieve the action’s aims. Your Natural England adviser will discuss eligible capital items with you.
Advice to help you do this action
The following optional advice may help you to do this action. Your agreement document will set out all the activities you must do.
Scarce or declining arable plants
Arable plants are wildflowers growing on land that’s used to grow crops and within other areas of disturbed soil. Their seeds can survive for years in the soil. Many individual species can be common in the local area but are listed as threatened and declining nationally.
You can still find the following species relatively frequently, typically on lighter, free-draining sandy or chalky soils:
- dwarf spurge
- field madder
- field woundwort
- round-leaved fluellen
- sharp leaved fluellen
- small toadflax
- Venus’ looking glass
The presence of these arable plants can indicate that seeds for other, rarer and declining species are there.
Putting margins in locations where you see one or more of these species can often yield good results over time.
Some of the most scarce and declining arable plants include species such as:
- broad-fruited cornsalad
- corn spurrey
- pheasant’s eye
- red-tipped cudweed
- shepherd’s needle
Use Plantlife’s Threatened Arable Plants ID guide to help you identify arable plants.
Choosing the right location for arable plants
You can find arable plants on a range of soil types. Some species prefer sandy, acidic soils, while others prefer chalk or clay soils. Others can flourish on any soil type. Check the Plantlife’s Threatened Arable Plants Identification guide will tell you to see which species you’re likely to find in your soil.
Most uncommon species are found in the south, southwest and east of England. Use the 2020 Plant Atlas to check if there are historical records (within the last 40 years) for your site. Alternatively, contact your local botanical recording group for advice.
Arable plants grow in places without crop treatments, like:
- the outer edges of a field of broad-leaved crops
- on or adjacent to tracks and other disturbed ground
You can create cultivated areas as field margins or larger plots, on a part or whole field basis. Create field margins at least 6 metres (m) wide.
Cultivate the areas where you already have existing arable plants. This will help maintain or increase the population. Locate big plots where there are many arable plants over a large area.
Keeping your plots or margins in the same place every year will:
- build up the seed bank
- reduce soil nutrients, so lessening competition from weeds and giving arable plants the space to grow
To increase your chances of finding dormant seeds, create your plots in:
- open, sunny locations
- the outermost 6m of your fields, as tracks and boundaries often have the richest seed bank
- areas at the top of slopes, as the soil is often shallow and the subsoil less fertile and productive
- fields that have a long history of cultivation – arable plant seeds can survive for long periods in the soil
You need to avoid:
- cool, north facing shaded locations, as most seeds will not germinate
- places with hard to control broad-leaved and grass weeds (such as black-grass, bristly oxtongue, common ragwort, couch, docks and thistles)
Cultivate your plots or margins in different areas from time to time. This will help you find new areas of arable plant seeds. Moving your plots around can minimise weeds and crop diseases. You can fit this in with your existing crop rotation.
Choosing the right location for feeding farmland birds
If you’re using this action to provide an important seed resource for farmland birds such as the turtle dove, you can provide food and shelter all year round (including nest sites). Do this by locating your plots in sunny locations close to:
- flower-rich habitat (such as flower rich margins and pollen and nectar flower mix) beside farm tracks where turtle doves can find spilt seeds later in summer
- winter bird food
- summer supplementary feeding areas
- tall hedgerows and areas of dense scrub
- ponds holding clean drinking water
Establishing cultivated areas
Cultivated areas for arable plants are easy to establish.
Cultivate the soil using normal farm machinery (such as a plough and press, power harrow or min-till cultivator) to help buried arable seeds germinate.
A fine, firm, level seed-bed suitable for a cereal crop will typically generate a good flush of desirable arable plants.
In most cases, use a depth of between 5 centimetres (cm) and 15cm deep. To minimise damage to below-ground historic features, avoid cultivating below 10cm.
Cultivating deeper (to 15cm or lower in depth) can also help bring up seeds from deeper within the soil.
When to cultivate
If you know what arable plants you have, read the managing land for arable plants guide to check the best time to create uncropped areas each year.
Some species germinate in the spring or autumn. Others will germinate in both seasons. If you have plants that germinate in the spring and the autumn, cultivate different plots at different times each year. This will help you grow the widest mix of species.
If you do not know what arable plants you have, alternate your cultivated areas between spring one year and autumn the following year. This will encourage a wider range of species.
Typical cultivation timings:
- for spring germination, cultivate between February and mid-April
- for autumn germination, cultivate between mid-September and November
To provide extended flower, insect and seed-rich foraging habitat between April and September cultivate:
- up to 50% in the autumn
- the remainder in the spring
This will benefit:
- invertebrates, such as butterflies, moths and solitary bees
- farmland birds, such as turtle dove
- small mammals, such as brown hare
How often to cultivate
Most scarce and declining arable plants (such as broad-fruited cornsalad, corn spurrey, pheasant’s eye, red-tipped cudweed and shepherd’s needle) require ground disturbed annually to germinate.
You can cultivate some arable plants on a longer, 2-year cultivation cycle.
Your Natural England adviser will advise you on the best cultivation frequency for your plots.
Weed management
Cultivated areas for arable plants may see a flush of weeds in the first year. As nutrient levels decrease over time, so will the weeds.
To control weeds, you can:
- alternate between autumn and spring cultivation every 2 to 3 years to control grass weeds such as black-grass and sterile brome
- vary cultivation depth every 2 to 3 years to break or induce seed dormancy
- relocate plots to areas with a lower weed burden (unless rare localised species are present)
- cut them to a minimum operating height of 30cm in late June and early July (only when weed species are dominating the area)
- regularly remove by hand in later June and early July (suitable for small areas)
- spot treat with herbicide using a knapsack or hand-lance in late June and early July
- use a non-selective herbicide from the beginning of September before you re-cultivate – this will help control weeds such as creeping thistle and mugwort
Fertiliser management
Avoid fertiliser drift during applications to adjacent crops. This will help arable plants grow without too much competition from competitive weeds such as black-grass, brome and cleavers.
You can establish an area of winter bird food next to cultivated areas for arable plants. This will help create a nutrient-free buffer and intercept any fertiliser.
What a successful cultivated margin or plot looks like
You’ll see:
- arable plants every year from mid-April until the end of August
- open patches between the plants with some bare areas and shorter vegetation giving birds easy access to seeds on the ground
- bees, wasps, hoverflies and butterflies
Keeping cultivated areas for arable plants
Retain all cultivated areas for arable plants until September to allow most species to complete their life cycle and set seed.
You can keep plots for longer into the spring. This will help provide food and shelter for farmland birds, invertebrates and other wildlife (such as brown hare) over the winter.
Getting extra funding
With approval from Natural England, you can sometimes use the CSP9: Support for threatened species supplement with this action to cover additional costs. These are costs you may incur when establishing or managing cultivated areas for arable plants for priority species.
For example, you can use it to manage cultivated areas for arable plants to deliver seed-rich foraging habitat for farmland birds such as turtle doves.