The National Sheep Association (NSA) welcomed the announcement from Welsh Government yesterday (Tuesday 15th July 2025) that has set out the new design of the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS). NSA is pleased to see progress on the scheme but believes the details shared pose several questions for Welsh farmers.

The SFS will involve a three-layer model—Universal, Optional and Collaborative—with actions required at farm level to improve biodiversity, soil health, water quality, and carbon management. NSA has long advocated that schemes must be practical, farmer-led and compatible with active grazing systems. Yesterday’s announcement, including a sudden reduction in the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) does raise some fresh concerns.

NSA Chief Executive Phil Stocker now believes farmers could be faced with a basic choice of working with the government and its aspirations for environmental delivery, or turning their back on the government and farming independently.

“The question is whether farmers want to follow the Welsh Government’s plan for farming and the environment or whether they choose to focus entirely on production taking steps to farming without support,” says Mr Stocker.

Whilst NSA supports the overarching goals of SFS - rewarding farmers for sustainable land management alongside food production - it remains concerned that the speed of transition to its January 2026 launch date is too abrupt. NSA also believes more detail on how the scheme will be administered is needed.

NSA has also noted the mention of sheep was omitted from the preliminary press release issued announcing the scheme, with cattle being mentioned as preferable for grazing some habitats.

NSA Wales / Cymru Development Officer Helen Roberts adds: “It is clear there will be winners and losers from the SFS. We note the intention that many of the actions are designed in a way that rewards farmers for doing much of what they are probably doing already but are also keen that this scheme doesn’t add a whole load more administration, recording and reporting for farmers.

“NSA is not convinced by the Welsh Government’s push to get people enrolling into the scheme by dropping the amount of BPS non entrants receive to 60%. We expected it to fall to 80%, which would have been a steadier fall.”

NSA is keen to hear more about application windows and will press the Government on the importance of sufficient funding, as it would be unhelpful if farmers were cut out of the scheme as English farmers experienced with the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

Welsh Government has announced the launch of an online ready reckoner that will be available for farmers to calculate what payments they can expect. The tool is to become available in the coming weeks. Farmers will need their company registration number (CRN) to access this.