Duration

3 years

How much you’ll be paid

£382 per hectare (ha) per year

Action’s aim

This action’s aim is that there’s an established herbal ley with:

• a mixture of grasses, legumes and herbs or wildflowers to provide varied root structures
• areas of flowering plants from late spring and during summer months

The purpose of this is to:

• produce a high volume of forage with minimal use of inorganic fertiliser
• improve resilience to drought
• help improve and maintain the soil’s structure, carbon, biology and fertility

Where you can do this action

You can do this action on agricultural land located below the moorland line that’s:

• an eligible land type (as defined in section 5.1 ‘Eligible land types for SFI’ in the SFI scheme information)
• registered with an eligible land cover on your digital maps
• declared with a land use code which is compatible with the eligible land cover

Eligible land

Eligibility of protected land

Available area you can enter into this action

Total or part of the available area in a land parcel.

Rotational or static action

This action is rotational or static. This means you can either:

• move its location for the second and third year of this action’s rotation
• do it at the same location each year of this action’s duration

What to do

You must establish an herbal ley with a mixture of grass, legumes and herbs on land entered into this action.

You must use a seed mix which includes all of the following (as a minimum):

• 1 grass species
• 2 legume species
• 2 herb or wildflower species

If you’re establishing an herbal ley on land identified by you as being at risk of soil erosion or runoff, you must use establishment techniques which minimise the risk of soil erosion or runoff. You can use the soil management plan produced for CSAM1 (or SAM1) to identify this land. See action CSAM1 for more information.

Once the herbal ley is established, you must maintain it. To do this you must manage it in a way, and for a period of time, that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim.

You must minimise use of inorganic fertilisers containing nitrogen. Usually, this will be no more than around 40 kilograms (kg) of nitrogen per ha per year.

You must not use the established herbal ley for storage or apply pesticides on it, except:

• for herbicides to weed wipe or spot treat to control injurious weeds, invasive non-native species, or nettles
• to destroy the existing ley to establish a new herbal ley

You can maintain an existing herbal ley to get paid for this action if it:

• meets this action’s requirements – you may need to re-sow it to make sure it can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim
• is not already being paid for under another environmental land management scheme option, such as Countryside Stewardship (CS) option GS4 (legume and herb-rich swards)

When to do it

You must:

• establish the herbal ley by early autumn, within 12 months of this action’s start date
• maintain the herbal ley at the same location for a period of time that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim – this will usually be until the end of the second summer after sowing
• re-establish the herbal ley by early autumn (either at the same location or a different location) and maintain it until this action’s end date

How to do it

It’s up to you how you do this action, as long as you:

• follow this action’s requirements – these are identified by a ‘must’
• do the action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim

You may find it helpful to read the ‘advice to help you do this action’, but it’s not part of this action’s requirements.

Evidence to keep

You must keep evidence to show what you’ve done to complete this action, such as:

• field operations at a land parcel level and associated invoices, including details of the seed mix used
• photographs or other documentation

If it’s not clear that you’ve done this action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve its aim, we may ask for this evidence. You must supply the evidence if we ask for it.

Other actions or options you can do on the same area as this action

You can do the following actions or options on the same area in a land parcel as this action. Some actions or options can only be done on the same area if they’re done at a different time of year to this action. For example, winter cover followed by a summer companion crop. Read ‘What to do’ and ‘When to do it’ to find out when this action must be done.

If an action or option cannot be located on the same area, you may be able to do it on a different area in the same land parcel. Read section 6 ‘Eligible land in other funding schemes’ in the SFI scheme information for more details.

You can do the following actions or options on the eligible boundaries of a land parcel entered into this action:

• SFI 2024 actions: CHRW1, CHRW2, CHRW3, BND1, BND2 and WBD2
• SFI 2023 actions: HRW1, HRW2, HRW3
• CS option BE3 (management of hedgerows)
• the introductory level of the SFI pilot hedgerows standard

Advice to help you do this action

The following advice may help you to do this action, but it’s not part of this action’s requirements.

Choosing a seed mix

This action explains the minimum requirement for species in the seed mix (under ‘What to do’).

If you want to grow a high-quality herbal ley (which goes beyond the basic requirements of this action), the seed mix will usually include at least:

• 5 grass species, such as cocksfoot, festulolium, meadow fescue, perennial ryegrass, smooth-stalked meadow grass, tall fescue and timothy
• 4 legume species, such as alsike clover, bird’s-foot-trefoil, lucerne, red clover, sainfoin winter vetch and common vetch, and black medickand white cover
• 4 herb species, such as burnet, chicory, ribwort plantain, salad burnet, sheep’s parsley and yarrow

Try to avoid a mix of festulolium and perennial ryegrass making up more than 70% by weight of the total seed mix.

Your seed supplier can help you choose a seed mix that is the best match for your land, local conditions and how you’ll manage the ley.

Where to establish the herbal leys

When you establish the herbal leys, by law you cannot cultivate or apply fertilisers or pesticides to land within 2m of the centre of a hedgerow. Read the guidance on Hedgerow management rules: buffer strips to understand how these rules apply to you.

How to maintain herbal leys

You can maintain herbal leys by grazing them with livestock or cutting them (or both).

To help achieve this action’s aim, you can rest the herbal leys from grazing or cutting for around at least 5 consecutive weeks between early May and late July. This will allow flowers to open and provide a source of pollen and nectar for insects.

It can take up to 4 years for the roots to grow enough to improve soil structure and fertility.

You may find it helpful to read the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) guidance on herbal leys.