DEFRA have announced one new option for Entry Level Scheme (ELS) / Organic Entry Level Scheme (OELS) and two new options for the Higher Level Scheme (HLS) which should be available in April 2006, reports Hamish Gairdner of farm business consultants, Strutt & Parker.

The options available to farmers and landowners will be:

1) ELS/OELS:

• Maintenance of traditional farm buildings – 2 points per sq metre of ground floor area

2) HLS

• Cattle grazing supplement

• Native breeds at risk supplement

Mr Gairdner of Strutt &Parker says “The ELS option for maintaining traditional farm buildings will encourage more farmers and landowners into the scheme, particularly where their land has not got lots of environmental features, such as, ditches and hedges. To put this in prospect a traditional farm building of 300 sq metres is the equivalent of having 5450 metres of single sided hedge row under management.

“However farmers and landowners should be cautious of entering buildings into the scheme without seeking advice on the short term prospects of developing them. Both schemes are five year agreements and if breached the farmer / landowner could be penalised.”

The HLS cattle grazing supplement will give further assistance to farmers with extensive cattle enterprises. There is a maximum payment of £35 per hectare on top of the £150 per hectare already available. The amount of payment will be dependent on your whole farm application and will be reviewed by the local HLS officer.

Mr Gairdner adds, “The Native Breeds at risk supplement will be a welcome return for the farmers and landowners that had invested in native breeds under the old English Nature schemes. There had been fears that as those agreements came to an end so would the incentive to keep our Native Breeds and so many would be replaced with more commercial breeds. However the introduction of this option, worth up to £70 per hectare, has helped to diminish many of those fears.”