Insurance set-aside poses topping bother
Farmers and landowners with insurance set-aside need to be aware that they could fall foul of management restrictions on the land for the first time this year, warns rural consultant Fisher German.
“In the past, you could safely allocate more land than the minimum requirement and manage all of it as set-aside,” notes the company’s farm consultancy partner Richard Sanders. “From this year, the Rural Payments Agency will assume insurance set-aside is managed under Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) 12.”
“Importantly this means the land cannot be topped between 1 March and 31 July to avoid disturbing ground-nesting birds, while on set-aside land you must either: cut the green cover between 15 July and 15 August; or destroy the green cover between 15 July and 31 August. This means on land that you are trying to manage in accordance both sets of rules there is just a fortnight at the end of July when you must top the land.” advises Mr Sanders.
“If you want to keep the land tidy without breaking cross-compliance rules, it may be best to plant a crop or manage it as bare fallow or grass,” advises Mr Sanders. “This has the advantage of keeping the land in Agricultural Production and therefore outside the GAEC 12 conditions, which only apply to land, that has been withdrawn from agricultural production and is over and above the area necessary to meet your set-aside obligation. The land can now be managed as bare fallow, provided this is to control weeds, such as blackgrass, and appropriate measures are taken to control soil erosion.
For more information and general assistance on Single Payment or other land management issues, call Richard Sanders or David Gibb at Fisher German on 01858 411234, or e-mail richard.sanders@fishergerman.co.uk or david.gibb@fishergerman.co.uk.
- Ashby de la Zouch
- 01530 412821
- Banbury
- 01295 271 555
- Knutsford
- 01565 757970
- Market Harborough
- 01858 410 200
- Newark
- 01949 851815
- Southampton
- 02380 883150
- Stafford
- 01785 220 044
- Worcester
- 01905 453275
