Regenerative farmers who wanted to give more land to environmental stewardship were told they must first repay nearly 300,000 he received under an existing scheme.
Max Chenery, a farmer of 800ha arable beef farm on the Whatton Estate near Loughborough, Leicestershire said that the ruling was excessively zealous. It went against government ideology.
Also, 2023 Countryside Stewardship opens with new changes to expand the program
Mr Chenery explained to us that in 2014, the farm was the last one to sign a 10-year Higher Level Stewardship Agreement (HLS).
The agreement covered low-input grassland and parkland, ancient monuments, wading birds, and parkland across the entire farm.
Mr Chenery stated that wildlife has benefited over the past eight years and he wanted those options to continue. He also committed more land to support nature recovery through Countryside Stewardship.
He said that I felt applying to Mid Tier Countryside Stewardship was the right decision for the environment as well as for the sustainability and growth of the farm business.
It’s also completely in line with what government wants us to do.
The Mid Tier options available under CS since Mr Chenery has improved tremendously since the HLS Agreement was signed.
Contract
However, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) states that such a switch to CS would be considered reneging on HLS contracts.
The rules stipulate that if HLS options cease to be available by the end 10 year agreement, the farmer will have to repay all payments.
This amounts to nearly 300,000 since 2014, a figure Mr Chenery claimed was impossible to afford.
While Mr Chenery acknowledged that he understood why the rule was necessary, to ensure that the environmental work was completed as planned, it was also acting against the natural recovery process and against government ambition.
We are not saying that we want the HLS to be dissolved; this work would continue, he stated.
The Mid Tier CS options are complementary to what we do already and would build on our existing work.
He will not be able to do this for the next two-and a half years, until his HLS contract expires.
The environment isn’t right, we cant conform to the governments ideal, and our business is on less stable footing than it was before. [Basic Payment Scheme]He said that funding is decreasing.
CLA support
The Country Land and Business Association is championing Mr Chenery’s case.
Harry Greenfield, senior land-use adviser, stated that keeping him bound to an agreement that achieves less for the environment is not a good idea and should be challenged.
Mr Greenfield stated that Mr Chenery would be able switch to Mid Tier CS if he could put large amounts of land into options such as herbal leys which have been proven to be beneficial to soil health.
He said that some farms have invested up to half or a third of their land in these options at 115/ha.
Two-year legume crops at 569/ha are another option for the Whatton Estate.
This option is better than the current, unprofitable breaks crops for soil health.
We hope that the RPA will get it right because other farmers, outside of the HLS, are more open to change.
As it stands now, the situation penalizes someone just for the sake of a law.