Natural England has announced a number of derogations to Environmental Stewardship requirements in light of continued challenging weather. A second bout of heavy snowfall at the end of an incredibly wet winter is proving challenging for many farmers in affected regions.  

In order to help farmers in Environmental Stewardship schemes cope better with further wet weather or snowfall this winter, Natural England announced on Monday (4th February) that it would be relaxing certain commitments.

These include a temporarily lifting of some land management requirements that normally apply to ES agreements, such as delaying specific Environmental Stewardship options until the spring where ground conditions are too wet, and changes to supplementary feeding arrangements. Whereas under normal circumstances farmers are expected to contact Natural England to seek consent for activities, such as supplementary feeding, which are not part of their ES agreement, in light of the challenging conditions the quango said this will not be necessary in some cases.

However, Natural England said that "Wherever possible, land not under agri-environment land management options should be used first for supplementary feeding."  Where this is not possible, agri-environment land can be used for supplementary feeding, but to reduce damage to environmental features, the conservation body made a number of recommendations:

• Supplementary feeding areas should be moved whenever possible;
• Any leftover forage should be completely removed to reduce damage to the sward after the snow has thawed;
• Feeding on archaeological features should be avoided;
• On moorland and common land, where landowners restrict the practice of supplementary feeding, graziers should consider whether to inform them of their intention to feed during this period of adverse weather;
• Supplementary feeding may continue for four days after the snow has cleared if the ground remains frozen. It should cease once the ground thaws
• Farmers on SSSI-designated land should contact their Natural England adviser before undertaking supplementary feeding;

Farmers with land in either Entry Level or Higher Level Stewardship wishing to take advantage of derogations should complete a Derogation Notice (ELS) or Derogation Request (HLS)

Geoff Sansome, Natural England’s Director for Land Management commented, "Farmers are facing some very difficult conditions on their land this winter and we continue to provide help and advice wherever we can to support the farming community.  We will ensure that appropriate derogations are available to help our Environmental Stewardship agreement customers to deal with some of the problems that this winter's very bad weather is causing."