AHW9 — Unharvested cereal headland

This action’s aim is that there’s an open-structured, spring cereal crop which: - is growing in strips or plots on the headland of the land parcel - remains unharvested during the summer, autumn and winter months The purpose of this is to: - provide a summer food source for farmland birds and insects - help establish a range of arable plants and other broad-leaved plants - provide a habitat that’s present over the winter for insects and food for seed-eating farmland birds

You can do this action on agricultural land located below the moorland line that’s: - a ‘headland’ (the outer edges of the land parcel which are usually used to turn farm equipment during field operations, such as planting) - an eligible land type (as defined in section 5.1.1 ‘Eligible land types’ in the SFI26 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 type | Eligible land cover | Compatible land use code Arable land used to grow spring cereal crops (not maize) | Arable land | Land use codes for arable crops or leguminous and nitrogen-fixing crops Temporary grassland | Arable land | TG01 Arable land lying fallow | Arable land | FA01

You must establish a spring cereal crop (not maize) in strips or plots on the headland. The strips or plots must not be more than around 24 metres wide. You must sow the cereal crop at a seed rate that’s reduced to a level that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim. As long as this action’s aim can reasonably be expected to be achieved, you can: - undersow a seed mix into the spring cereal crop - use a blend or mix of cereals Once the cereal crop strips or plots are established, you must manage them in a way, and for a period of time, that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim. This will usually mean keeping them until around mid-February in the year after establishment. You must not apply the following to the strips or plots: - any fertilisers, manures or lime - insecticides after around mid-March You must not apply herbicides apart from those containing the following permitted active ingredients: - amidosulfuron - clodinafop-propargyl - fenoxaprop- P -ethyl - pinoxaden - tri-allate It may not be possible for you to use these permitted active ingredients on all crops. It’s your responsibility to confirm whether herbicides are approved for use on the affected crop. You can use an existing spring cereal crop strip or plot to get paid for this action if it: - meets this action’s requirements - is not already being paid for under another environmental land management scheme action or option, such as CS option AB7 (whole crop cereals)

You must do this action each year of its 3-year duration. If this action’s start date means it’s too late to establish the cereal crop, you must establish it within 12 months of this action’s start date. In the final year of this action’s duration, you must do the action until the end of the winter months or this action’s end date whichever is earlier.

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.

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 - 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.