CNUM3: Legume fallow

What you must do to get paid for this action and advice on how to do it.

This is an action in the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme: expanded offer for 2024. You must read the SFI scheme information to understand the scheme rules and how to apply.

Duration

3 years

How much you’ll be paid 

£593 per hectare (ha) per year

Action’s aim 

This action’s aim is that there’s an established legume fallow with plants that:

  • grow and flower from late spring and during the summer months
  • provide green cover over the winter months

The purpose of this is to:

  • manage nutrient efficiency and improved soil health
  • provide food for farmland wildlife, such as pollen and nectar for pollinators and farmland birds
  • support an integrated pest management approach by reducing grass weeds and, if located close to cropped areas, encourage natural crop pest predators

Where you can do this action  

You can do this action on agricultural land located below the moorland line that’s:

Eligible land

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 
Permanent crops – horticultural   Permanent crops  TC01 

Eligibility of protected land

Protected land Eligibility
Sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) Eligible – you must get SSSI consent before you do this action (read section 5.5 ‘Land that’s a site of special scientific interest (SSSI)’)
Historic and archaeological features Eligible – you must get a HEFER before you do this action (read section 5.6 ‘Land with historic or archaeological features’)

Available area you can enter into this action

Total or part of the available area in a land parcel.

Rotational or static action   

If you’re establishing a new legume fallow to meet this action, the action is static. This means you must do it at the same location each year of this action’s duration.

If you’re maintaining an existing legume fallow, this action is rotational or static. This means you can either:

  • move its location for the second year of this action’s duration (and third year, depending on the timing of this action’s start date) and re-sow the mix
  • do it at the same location each year of this action’s duration

What to do

You must establish a legume fallow on land entered into this action.

You must use a seed mix which contains at least 6 flowering species, including legumes. The seed mix can contain legumes such as:

  • alsike clover
  • bird’s foot trefoil
  • black medick
  • common vetch
  • lucerne

The seed mix can also include:

  • non-legume flower species
  • grasses, such as cocksfoot or timothy, which can help to control blackgrass

You must avoid growing deep rooted legumes, such as lucerne, on any area in a land parcel that contains historic or archaeological features. These are identified in your HEFER.

Once the legume fallow is established (usually from the second spring after sowing), you must maintain it. To do this, you must manage it in a way, and for a period of time, that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim.

You must not do the following on the established legume fallow:

  • graze it with livestock – if you want to do this you may want to consider action CSAM3 (herbal leys) instead which allows grazing activity
  • use the area for regular vehicular access, turning or storage
  • cut it, except to prevent blackgrass from setting seed or to control other annual grass weeds
  • apply any fertilisers and manures
  • apply pesticides, except for herbicides to weed wipe or spot treat to control injurious weeds, invasive non-native species, nettles or bracken

You can maintain an existing legume fallow to get paid for this action if it:

  • meets this action’s requirements
  • is not already being paid for under another environmental land management scheme option, such as Countryside Stewardship (CS) option AB15 (two year sown legume fallow)

When to do it 

If you’re establishing a new legume fallow to meet this action, you must:

  • sow the mix by the autumn, within 12 months of this action’s start date
  • maintain the mix at the same location for a period of time that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim – this will usually be until the end of the second summer after sowing

If you’re maintaining an existing legume fallow to meet this action, you must:

  • maintain it for a period of time that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim – this will usually be until the end of the second summer after sowing
  • re-sow the mix by the following autumn – either at the same location or a different location

If you want to establish a legume fallow in the spring and remove it in the summer during the same year, you should apply for spring-sown or summer-sown cover crops actions (SOH2 or SOH3).

How to do it 

It’s up to you how you do this action, as long as you:

  • follow this action’s requirements – these are identified by a ‘must’
  • do the action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim

Advice to help you do this action will be published before applications are fully launched from summer 2024. It will not be part of this action’s requirements.

Evidence to keep 

You must keep evidence to show what you’ve done to complete this action, such as:

  • field operations at a land parcel level and associated invoices, including details of the seed mix used
  • photographs or other documentation

If it’s not clear that you’ve done this action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve its aim, we may ask for this evidence. You must supply the evidence if we ask for it.

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. For example, winter cover followed by a summer companion crop. Read ‘What to do’ and ‘When to do it’ to find out when this action must be done.

Scheme Action or option codes
SFI 2024 actions  OFC3, OFC4, OFC5, OFM4, OFM5, AGF1, AGF2, PRF2, CIPM1, CNUM1, CSAM1 
SFI 2023 actions  IPM1, NUM1, SAM1 
CS options   OR3, OR4, OR5, OT3, OT4, OT5  
ES options  No ES revenue options 
SFI pilot standards  No area-based SFI pilot standards 

If an action or option cannot be located on the same area, you may be able to do it on a different area in the same land parcel. Read section 6 ‘Eligible land in other funding schemes’ for more information.

You can do the following actions or options on the eligible boundaries of a land parcel entered into this action:

  • SFI 2024 actions: CHRW1, CHRW2, CHRW3, BND1, BND2 and WBD2
  • SFI 2023 actions: HRW1, HRW2, HRW3
  • CS option: BE3 (management of hedgerows)
  • the introductory level of the SFI pilot hedgerows standard
Published 21 May 2024