According to the National Farmers' Union Scotland, in the absence of clarity from Scottish Government on all greening requirements, farmers are making choices now that they hope will mean they comply.
Some of the choices which are being made by board members of NFUS are the following:
l Board Member 1 - "Keeping ground in stubble until spring with the intention of then planting spring barley or spring beans.
"Planting beans is the preference but this will depend upon the management rules when they are published.
"Just now I am maintaining grass margins and will use them to count towards my EFA (Ecological Focus Area) requirement if I go down the spring barley route."
l Board Member 2 - "Bet -ween whole crop triticale and spring barley for combining, I am at about 40 hectares (ha) arable.
"I also have more than 60ha temporary grass which must be taken into account when determining EFA requirement.
"The possible management rules for nitrogen fixing crops to qualify for EFA means that my temporary grass acreage will rack me up a significant EFA requirement which will pull precious ploughable land out of production. As primarily a beef and sheep producer who grows both spring barley for feed and triticale for whole crop, the three crop rule isn't a problem, but to get away from a new form of set-aside and the compliance traps of greening, becoming exempt looks less attractive.
"Unless the EFA package is user friendly, it looks as if walking away from growing my own feed barley and ducking under the 30ha threshold for cropping is the smart way forward.
With more than 75 per cent grass, I will be exempt from crop diversity and EFA."
l Board Member 3 - "I will use field margins and hopefully plant some beans or peas in spring - the fallow option is not good for us.
On rivers, dykes, burns etc. I will already have a two-metre GAEC (Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition) requirement, so I believe I will use this to count towards my EFA requirement."
l Board Member 4 - "In order to conform to my greening obligations, I have decided not to plough a strip round the headriggs of the grass fields being sown into cereals.
"My intention is to mow the grass and take a few silage bales from the buffer strips/margins once the restriction date is passed -assuming there will be a restriction on the grass that can be taken.
"The advantage as I see it is that the land won't become a weed bank and may provide some good animal feed.
"This option should also provide useful wildlife corridors during the growing season and be one of the more environmentally friendly measures."
Almost one-third of Scotland's direct support (Pillar 1) budget will be allocated to the greening payment and, to receive it, farmers will need to undertake standard greening practices where relevant or not exempt.
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