The Countryside Stewardship scheme provides financial incentives for farmers and land managers to help look after their environment by conserving and restoring wildlife habitats. The scheme will continue to be available for both existing and new applicants for the foreseeable. DEFRA will be phasing out Direct Payments between now and 2027, with the money from this being put back into farming and the countryside via the Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Land Management Schemes.
AB1 Nectar Flower
6kgs per Acre / 15kgs per Hectare
Providing areas of flowering plants to boost essential food sources for beneficial pollinators, such as; bumblebees, solitary bees, butterflies and hoverflies.
| 45% | Vetch |
| 20% | Red Clover |
| 10% | Alsike Clover |
| 6% | Phacelia |
| 6% | Lucerne |
| 5% | Yellow Blossom Sweet Clover |
| 3% | Birdsfoot Trefoil |
| 2% | Black Medick |
| 1% | Knapweed |
| 1% | Ox Eye Daisy |
| 1% | Yarrow |
AB3 Beetle Banks
8kgs per Acre / 20kgs per Hectare
Provides nesting and foraging habitats for insects (including those that feed on crop pests), bumblebees, small mammals and some farmland birds.
| 60% | Strong Creeping Red Fescue |
| 20% | Hard Fescue |
| 15% | Timothy |
| 5% | Cocksfoot |
AB8 Flower Rich Margins
8kgs per Acre / 20kgs per Hectare
Flower-rich grass margins provide important habitat and foraging sites for invertebrates (including wild pollinators) and birds. Supplying an abundant supply of pollen and nectar-rich flowers throughout the summer.
| 40% | Creeping Red Fescue |
| 15% | Hard Fescue |
| 15% | Chewings Fescue |
| 5% | Smooth Stalked Meadow Grass |
| 5% | Crested Dogstail |
| 5% | Red Clover |
| 4% | Vetch |
| 3% | Alsike Clover |
| 3% | Sainfoin |
| 2% | Phacelia |
| 0.7% | Birdsfoot Trefoil |
| 0.3% | Knapweed |
| 0.4% | Field Scabious |
| 0.2% | Ox Eye Daisy |
| 0.4% | Self Heal |
| 0.3% | Meadow Buttercup |
| 0.3% | Ladys Bedstraw |
| 0.4% | Ribwort Plantain |
AB9 Winter Bird Food
8kgs per Acre / 20kgs per Hectare
Providing an abundant supply of small seeds during the autumn and winter months therefore this mixture provides important food resources for farmland birds, especially in autumn and winter.
1 Year
| 50% | Triticale |
| 30% | Barley |
| 5% | White Millet |
| 5% | Sunflower |
| 4% | White Mustard |
| 3% | Linseed |
| 3% | Quinoa |
20kgs per Acre / 50kgs per Hectare
2 Year
| 50% | Triticale |
| 30% | Barley |
| 5% | White Millet |
| 5% | White Mustard |
| 4% | Quinoa |
| 3% | Kale |
| 3% | Rape |
20kgs per Acre / 50kgs per Hectare
Church Wild Bird
| 30% | White Millet |
| 20% | Canary |
| 15% | Linseed |
| 15% | Sunflower |
| 10% | Triticale |
| 5% | Kale |
| 5% | Quinoa |
20kgs per Acre / 50kgs per Hectare
AB12 Supplementary Winter Feeding
20kgs per Acre / 50kgs per Hectare
This scheme provides important food resources for farmland birds in late winter and early spring. It gives the birds food through the late winter period when seed is in short supply and as they enter the breeding season.
You must combine cereals, with small seeds making up a minimum of 30% of the total weight, choosing at least 3 of the following:
- Canary Seed
- Linseed
- Rape
- Red Millet
- White Millet
- Sunflower Hearts
AB15 Two Year Sown Legume Fallow
8kgs per Acre / 20kgs per Hectare
Providing food for farmland wildlife, such as pollen and nectar for pollinators, and invertebrate chick food for farmland birds. It can also be a useful part of a rotation aimed at reducing blackgrass populations. To be sown as soon as possible after harvest.
| 50% | Vetch |
| 10% | Crimson Clover |
| 10% | Alsike Clover |
| 10% | Lucerne |
| 10% | Red Clover |
| 7% | Berseem Clover |
| 2% | Birdsfoot Trefoil |
| 1% | Black Medick |
AB16 Autumn Sown Bumblebird
20kgs per Acre / 50kgs per Hectare
Provides important food resources for farmland birds and a range of nectar feeding insects, including butterflies and bumblebees.
| 33% | Winter Triticale |
| 33% | Winter Wheat |
| 2% | Fodder Radish |
| 3.4% | Gold of Pleasure |
| 3.4% | Kale |
| 8.4% | Winter Linseed |
| 1% | Alsike Clover |
| 1% | Birdsfoot Trefoil |
| 6.8% | Vetch |
| 5% | Crimson Clover |
| 1% | Lucerne |
| 1% | Phacelia |
| 1% | Red Clover |
GS4 Legume & Herb Rich Swards
10kgs per Acre / 25kgs per Hectare
A vigorous sward with abundant legumes and herbs, suitable for productive cattle and sheep, will also provide habitat and food for invertebrates, including crop pollinators, and improve soil structure and water infiltration.
| 25% | Late Perennial Ryegrass |
| 20% | Strong Creeping Red Fescue |
| 15% | Meadow Fescue |
| 15% | Timothy |
| 10% | Red Clover |
| 5% | Smooth Stalked Meadow Grass |
| 2.87% | Sainfoin |
| 2% | Lucerne |
| 2% | Birdsfoot Trefoil |
| 1% | Fenugreek |
| 0.63% | Sheeps Parsley |
| 0.37% | Ribgrass |
| 0.50% | Chicory |
| 0.50% | Sheeps Burnet |
| 0.13% | Yarrow |