Farmers Weekly understands that the number of CS Mid Tier schemes expiring this December runs into thousands and many of these farmers cannot access the alternative Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), which remains temporarily closed.<\/p>\n
Oxfordshire farmer Tom Allen-Stevens, who has had 30% of his land in five-year CS agreements for 15 years at the 170ha mainly arable Wicklesham Farm, in Faringdon, says he\u2019ll now cut that to just 5%.<\/p>\n
With Defra\u2019s SFI scheme still to be reopened and rumoured to offer just \u00a310,000 per farm \u2013 down from the \u00a334,000 he currently receives \u2013 the maths no longer stack up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve come to the realisation that we can\u2019t just sit around waiting for Defra to publish its SFI plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got to assume that I\u2019m not going to be able to put these areas back into stewardship. So, they\u2019re going into production,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That means long-established wildlife habitats \u2013 including legume fallows, wild bird cover, pollen and nectar flower strips, and arable reversion areas \u2013 will be lost.<\/p>\n
![\"Maps](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Wicklesham-Farm-2025-v-2027_C_c-Tom-Allen-Stevens-1024x577.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Tom Allen-Stevens<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was walking through one of my fields of legume fallow the other day, I came across a skylark\u2019s nest,\u201d said Mr Allen-Stevens.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the biodiversity that we built up in those areas will be lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you came back in two years, I suspect it would look pretty bad. That\u2019s just sad, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wider concerns<\/p>\n
His concerns are echoed by farmers across England.<\/p>\n
James Rebanks, a hill farmer and author based in Cumbria, said farmers are under so much financial pressure that they \u201chave to make every acre count\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we take away the reward from these schemes, we are simply going to have massively less nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is insanity in the middle of a biodiversity crisis.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Gloucestershire farmer Jake Freestone posted on X that his 15-year-old \u201ccracking pollen and nectar mix\u201d, home to many marbled white butterflies, will also be ploughed up as support ends.<\/p>\n
Defra is opening a new CS Higher Tier scheme for applications in September \u2013 though initially by invitation only.<\/p>\n
Further details on the SFI are expected later this summer, with the scheme set to reopen in early 2026.<\/p>\n
NFU demand<\/p>\n
NFU deputy president David Exwood said: \u201cThe capacity of the new CS Higher Tier is nowhere near enough to cope with the people who may come out of the CS Mid Tier or HLS schemes in the coming years.<\/p>\n
\u201cEither there is no capacity or no scheme available for these farmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout a comprehensive plan from Defra on how these people can access schemes in the future, we risk losing large areas of important habitat.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Defra spokesperson said: \u201cOur commitment to farming is steadfast.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve allocated a record \u00a311.8bn to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament and we will outline updates to our reformed SFI offer later this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nature-friendly farmers \u2018face support cliff-edge\u2019<\/p>\n
Thousands of farmers in England could be forced to abandon wildlife-friendly practices this winter as agri-environment scheme agreements expire without clear replacements, nature groups have warned.<\/p>\n
Alice Groom, head of sustainable land policy at the RSPB, said: \u201cOnce again, farmers delivering for nature are being left high and dry.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a time when we need to create more space for nature, it\u2019s deeply concerning that farmers feel forced to scale back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier agreements signed in 2020 and some Higher Tier agreements from 2015 are due to end in December.<\/p>\n
But even farmers in line for new Higher Tier schemes could face delays and payment gaps due to IT issues, she warned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis foreshadows another wave of expiries in 2028 when all HLS agreements end, and government has not outlined a plan to transition that land into new agreements,\u201d said Ms Groom.<\/p>\n
Martin Lines, chief executive of the Nature Friendly Farming Network UK, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be devastating for nature and for farmers to have to make the tough decision to move areas that have been delivering for nature back into production to deliver a revenue stream because of lack of clarity from government.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vital wildflower habitats and biodiversity areas on English farms are being ploughed up as Defra\u2019s Countryside Stewardship (CS)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-53453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}