The Countryside Stewardship (CS) claim deadline is being extended by one month to 15th June 2018. This means CS agreement holders have an extra month to submit their CS annual claim. The original deadline for Natural England to receive these by was 15th May 2018. This extension will only apply to CS agreement holders and CS applicants who are still waiting to receive offers of an agreement due to start from 1st January 2018.

The claim deadline extension does not apply to Environmental Stewardship claims or Basic Payment Scheme 2018 applications; both of these must be submitted by 15th May to avoid late claim penalties.

Farmers and land managers who are waiting for their CS agreement offer will be notified soon about whether or not their application was successful. Natural England is working to send out the remaining agreement offers by the end of May, and successful candidates will need to accept their agreements and send in a claim by 15th June.

Natural England is writing to all Countryside Stewardship agreement holders and applicants awaiting their agreement to inform them of the one month extension. The extra month also means that customers who need to make any changes to the maps on their agreement offer or raise any other queries with Natural England have time to do so.

Soil Sampling

If you applied for Countryside Stewardship in 2017 (with a start date of 01/01/2018) and included either of the options for permanent grassland with very low inputs, either GS2 or GS5, you will need to submit soil analysis results (as least PH and phosphate) for these parcels.

Originally soil analysis results needed to be submitted with your first claim. However if you have received your agreement offer after 30th April, you now have until the 31st August to submit your soil samples.

FWAG SouthWest may be able to help you with these, contact us to get a quote for your application. Please note that we cannot guarantee we will have capacity to undertake all requests for soil analysis, so please contact us as soon as possible.

FWAG SW standard rates of £25 +VAT per sample, including testing cost,
with a minimum charge of £50 +VAT.

If you would like some more information please contact FWAG SW on 01823 660684 or email [email protected]