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December 2022 – Issue 82
Welcome to the Farming Advice Service (FAS) newsletter
Thank you for continuing to subscribe to our monthly newsletter. We hope you find the content useful and we welcome any feedback or suggestions on topics you would like to see covered in future editions.
Contents
- Key dates to be aware of
- How can we help you?
- Watch our webinar recordings and listen to our podcasts
- Technical articles available on the FAS website
- Need extra support?
- Cross compliance in 2023
- Remember to submit your annual sheep and goat inventory
- The benefits of taking part in the next Farm Business Survey
- Meet the Farming Advice Service helpline team
- Slurry Infrastructure Grant – Applications now open
- Free business advice: latest list of providers
- Updates from the Future Farming blog and industry announcements
- Stay up to date with us
Key dates to be aware of:
- 23 December: The FAS telephone and email helpline will be closed from 17:00 on Friday 23 December until 08.30 on Tuesday 3 January. Any messages received during this time will be picked up in the new year
- 31 December: If you keep sheep and/or goats, this is the deadline to submit your annual count of livestock into your holding register and to the inventory (online or by post). (SMR* 8)
- 31 December: End of the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) 2022 scheme year. (BPS 2022)
- 1 January: You must start following the rules in the cross compliance 2023 guide from this date. The Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) 2023 year starts.
- 1 January: You can apply organic manure with a high readily available nitrogen content (for example, slurry, poultry manures or liquid digested sewage sludge) to grassland and tillage land on shallow or sandy soils from this date if conditions are suitable and you adhere to the quantity restrictions for application of these manures. (SMR**1)
- 1 January: Beginning of the year for assessing the annual amount of livestock manure applied to your land. (SMR**1)
- 16 January: For any land located in an NVZ, this is the date from which you can apply manufactured nitrogen fertilisers to grassland and tillage land if conditions are suitable. This is subject to the Farming Rules for Water being complied with and there is agronomic justification. (SMR**1)
- 1 February: For any land located in an NVZ, you can, from this date, apply organic manure with a high, readily available nitrogen content (for example, slurry, poultry manures or liquid digested sewage sludge) to grassland and tillage land on all soil types if conditions are suitable and you adhere to the quantity restrictions for applying these manures. This is also subject to the Farming Rules for Water being complied with and there is agronomic justification. (SMR**1)
In case you missed them:
- 1 December: If you keep sheep and/or goats, you must carry out your annual count of the animals on you holding as of 1 December. You must submit this information by 31 December. You will receive a letter in November which tells you what to do. (SMR** 8)
- 1 December: Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship 2022 payment window opens.
(* GAEC = Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition
** SMR = Statutory Management Requirements)
For more detail about the information provided in the key dates table, visit the guide to cross compliance in England 2022 and Rural Payments Agency (RPA) key dates 2022 at GOV.UK.
How can we help you?
Free and confidential advice
The FAS is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). We provide free, confidential advice to help farmers in England understand and meet the cross compliance requirements. These requirements apply to you if you are a Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), Countryside Stewardship or Environmental Stewardship claimant.
We update the farming sector on relevant government farming policy that is applicable in England and on the actions that can be taken to help farmers comply with applicable regulations. Our newsletter also provides articles on topics that are complementary to cross compliance, such as practices to benefit the wider environment and wellbeing support.
Our website hosts our previous newsletters, as well as technical articles and webinars that cover various topics in more detail.
Contacting the advice line
Farmers requiring telephone advice can contact the FAS technical advice line on 03000 200 301, Monday to Friday, between 08:30 and 17:00. The Rural Services Helpline provides a single number for all FAS, RPA, Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Natural England and forestry enquiries.
You can also email enquiries to advice@farmingadviceservice.org.uk. Our helpline team aims to respond to all telephone and email enquiries within one working day.
The advice given to individual farmers is confidential – we do not disclose any personal or individual information or data obtained during advisory activities.
Watch our webinar recordings and listen to our podcasts
Did you miss the latest FAS webinar (Further planning for change – a panel discussion on navigating farming support schemes in 2023) which took place on 7 November? You can catch up on this and many of our previous webinars on the FAS website.
You can also listen to podcasts with expert speakers on the FAS website, as well as through Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.
Technical articles available on the FAS website
The FAS has produced a number of technical articles covering a range of topics, from farming practices to cross compliance. To access these articles, please click on the links below:
Need extra support?
We understand that it can be difficult to keep up to date with all the changes affecting the farming industry and the amount of information available can be daunting. The FAS is here to help. You can also find the most up-to-date information on grants and payments at GOV.UK.
If you are feeling overwhelmed and are not sure where to turn, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI) and the Farming Community Network (FCN) offer support services by email and by phone. A range of other organisations also offer complementary forms of support for the farming community; click here to view support organisations by topic.
The FCN receives between 100 and 150 calls from farmers each month and they have now produced an article highlighting the learnings from these calls. For information on their top 10 observations from these calls, please click here.
Cross compliance in 2023
Farmers and landowners must follow the cross compliance rules if they claim for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), a stewardship scheme or the Farm Woodland Premium Payments element of the English Woodland Grant Scheme (EWGS) in 2023. As with previous years, BPS will run for the full calendar year (1 January to 31 December 2023). Those who are intending to claim payments under BPS for 2023 will be required to comply with the BPS requirements for the entire year.
The full cross compliance guide for 2023 has been published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cross-compliance-2023
There will be no changes to the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs) and Statutory Management Requirements (SMRs) in 2023.
However, there are some operational changes that will be implemented. Previously, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) had to apply penalties differently between those
- who claim for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) only
- whose Countryside Stewardship (CS) agreements start on or after 1 January 2021 only
- whose CS agreements start on or after 1 January 2021 only and who claim for BPS.
- and all other rural payments claimants.
This was a result of funding for different schemes coming from either the EU, the UK or both. As all rural payments in 2023 are now UK funded this no longer applies and this difference has now been removed.
FAS will provide a more detailed review of Cross Compliance in 2023 in our January newsletter.
Remember to submit your annual sheep and goat inventory
If you keep sheep or goats, you must carry out an annual count of the animals on your holding as of 1 December, enter this into your holding register, complete the inventory form and submit it online or by post by 31 December. This article provides more information on how to do this.
Keeping an annual inventory is a requirement of sheep and goat legislation and also a cross compliance requirement under Statutory Management Requirement (SMR) 8: Sheep and goat identification. If you do not complete the annual inventory, this is a breach under the cross compliance rules and it may increase your chance of being selected for a sheep or goat identification inspection and/or a Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) inspection.
Once you have carried out the annual count of your sheep or goats, you must enter the information into the online form here, or complete and return a paper form, by 31 December. The online inventory form became available on 29 November. If you are completing a paper form, the pre-paid envelope should be addressed to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) which records the information on behalf of Defra. For guidance on how to complete the forms, please visit GOV.UK.
You should have received a letter from Defra during November. If you did not receive correspondence by 3 December with information on how to complete your inventory, please call the Defra Surveys Team helpline on 03000 600 140 or email surveys@defra.gov.uk.
The benefits of taking part in the next Farm Business Survey
On 8 November Defra published Farming Business Incomes data from the Farm Business Survey. The survey provides a key data source for a range of analyses on farm performance and productivity. Defra are extremely grateful to the farmers and growers who already participate in the survey, many of whom have been involved for a long time.
This year a number of additional farmers and growers will be offered the opportunity to participate in the survey. Following a recent procurement exercise the Farm Business Survey team are now starting an exciting new period working with Promar International who have been awarded the next data collection contract. In return for taking part in the survey, Promar will offer the following benefits:
- Free access to financial farm management software Agstute, (worth £600/year to the farmer). You can of course continue to use your own accounting and management software if you prefer
- Free set of reconciled management accounts for your farm
- Free tailored feedback on aspects of your business performance, including benchmark reports (comparing your farms data to that of a similar type and size in your region).
If you are interested in knowing more about participating in the survey, please email Natalie Stoppard at Promar.
Meet the Farming Advice Service helpline team
One of the unique services offered by the Farming Advice Service is our helpline, which is open to anyone seeking guidance on cross compliance and related topics. In our latest podcast we meet some of the helpline team and hear about the kind of questions they can help with, including passing technical queries onto our team of expert farm advisors and signposting to the wealth of information available on gov.uk and other partner sites.
Beth starts by saying “I think it’s important for people to know that all calls are confidentially; we don’t pass information on to anyone else and if people need some guidance on what the cross compliance rules mean for them, we’re here to help. Sometimes callers are worried about giving their details because they think we’ll share information with the RPA or EA and they might get in trouble, but we’re not linked to any enforcement teams and we really are just there to help people”.
Nicola tells us about the wide range of queries we receive; for some we can answer directly and for others we can point people in the right direction. “The helpline number (03000 200 301) also goes through to the RPA, Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Natural England and a few other teams, and sometimes people just don’t know who they need to talk to. If they have a question about Cross Compliance or a FAS service we can often answer it there and then, but if not we’ll always do our best to put callers in touch with someone who can help them. We understand there’s a huge amount of information out there and finding what you need can be difficult. As the helpline team use the information on a daily basis, we can usually find what people need.”
Manuela tells us a little more about how we refer technical queries on to expert advisors. “Sometimes someone will call or email (advice@farmingadviceservice.org.uk) with a question that needs some expert input; maybe it’s about something on their farm that’s very specific and they need help understanding how the rules apply to them. In these cases we can refer their question onto an expert farm advisor, who will call them back within 1 working day and talk them through a solution. It’s a completely free service and we have some very experienced advisors working with us, who can provide support a caller might not be able to get from anywhere else.”
Listen to our new podcast for more insight into how the helpline works and how we can help you, and please do make use of it if for free, confidential support.
Slurry Infrastructure Grant: Applications now open
Applications for the new Slurry Infrastructure grant opened on 6 December 2022, with farmers in England able to apply for grants of £25,000 - £250,000 towards the cost of slurry stores, covers and supporting equipment, to improve their slurry storage.
Before you apply read the full grant guidance available on GOV.UK to help you prepare. It sets out who can apply, what the grant can pay for and the information you’ll need to provide when you apply.
The first stage of the applications process is an online checker. You can find it on the Slurry Infrastructure grant page on GOV.UK.
Defra have developed the checker to give you an easy way of checking you’re eligible for a grant and how much funding you could get. The checker also tells Defra how many farmers want a grant and the size of projects across the country. This helps them control how many people are invited to submit a full application in this round. It also means you won't waste time filling in an application if we can’t prioritise you in this round.
As you use the checker, it's important to be as accurate as you can about your slurry storage needs and project plans. Once the online checker closes, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will look at how many projects can be funded.
The Slurry Infrastructure grant is part of the Farming Investment Fund.
Free business advice: latest list of providers
Through the Future Farming Resilience Fund, any farmer or land manager in England who receives Basic Payment Scheme payments is eligible to receive free business advice from an independent provider during the early years of the agricultural transition.
Defra have been offering this support in phases. The final phase of support is now underway. It will run until March 2025. In this phase, 17 known and trusted organisations in the farming community have been funded by Defra to give advice to 32,000 people.
To access this advice, take a look at the list of advice providers on GOV.UK. It is arranged by county.
Check what each adviser offers and choose the one that suits your needs. You can contact them directly.
If you have trouble accessing the list online, call Defra on 0345 933 5577.
Defra will share a list of advisers in your county, describe the type of support on offer and provide you with contact details. You’ll need to contact that adviser directly by email or phone.
There are various types of support to choose from. For example:
- farm business reviews with recommendations - this is something most providers offer
- access to workshops, webinars and tours
- carbon audits
- benchmarking tools
- You are welcome to get introductory help and information from multiple providers and you can attend as many opening webinars or workshops as you like, but you can only receive detailed 1-to-1 support from a single provider.
To help you prepare, visit the funding for farmers page on GOV.UK. It gives an overview of the new ongoing payments and one-off grants available to farmers in England.
Updates from the Future Farming blog and industry announcements
Defra regularly updates the Future Farming blog. Please subscribe to the blog to ensure you receive all the latest news.
- How RPA ensures land data is kept up to date. During a three-month period between December and February each year, the RPA systematically reviews and updates data held on the Rural Land Register each year through a process called Proactive Land Change Detection (PLCD).
If, as part of PLCD, a mapping update is made to your land, you will be notified through the Rural Payments service. During the last round of PLCD updates, only 4% of the land parcels updated were returned to RPA for further amendment. However, if you have any concerns about the changes, you can use an RLE1 form to request further mapping changes.
Stay up to date with us
Follow us on Twitter @DefraFAS for up-to-the-minute updates on publications, events and industry information.
If you don’t already receive our monthly FAS newsletter, please visit farmingadviceservice.org.uk and enter your email address into the newsletter sign-up box.
Alternatively, please email bookings@farmingadviceservice.org.uk, with ‘Register for newsletter’ in the subject line.
In line with data protection regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018, the FAS has updated its privacy policy to explain how your data is kept safe. To view the policy, please visit www.farmingadviceservice.org.uk/events/privacy/.
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