Blog: EFA field margins - close to the edge

As a long drawn out, diesel-burning harvest finally comes to a close we are out with toppers, cultivators and drills putting down next year’s cropping plans. The added complication for many of us this year is the design and placing of our EFA requirement for 2018.

Previously it’s been fairly simple in that it’s been achieved through our pea or bean acreage or an area of fallow land. But now that PPPs have been banned from EFA field-based areas these options are a lot less attractive so we are looking to our qualifying features such as ditches and hedges and the margins around our arable fields.

There is also the possibility of cover crops and catch crops. It’s the margins that are occupying me most as I drive the cultivator around the edge of the field. Just how close to the edge do I need to be? I need to take into account my cross compliance margins which vary according to what is on the perimeter of the field, be it a hedge, a ditch, a track, a plain boundary etc (remembering the rules tell me the minimum width they need to be).

Then I need to work out what EFA equivalent area I can achieve by leaving an EFA margin several metres wide against these different features. There are also public footpaths to consider.

I’m also conscious that I need to get this right now rather than leave it until I start to fill in my BPS form next spring. Clearly I need to make sure I hit the 5% EFA requirement with some comfort room to spare (remembering I could be inspected next year on my plans now) while not unnecessarily taking too much land out of production. Furthermore, if I need to top things up with some cover crops or fallow I need to be clear how these are managed and when.

It's all got a bit brain-aching. So over the hill come our BPS advisers to the rescue. It's not straightforward so it's not to be paraphrased here but rather here is the detail you need to plough through before you plough through your EFA margin.

We are expecting more detail to be clarified in the coming weeks so please keep your eyes peeled on developments here, and be assured that NFU staff are continuing to raise questions and observations with the RPA to clarify the new rules with an aim to make them work as best as possible.