At the end of July, guidance was published for farmers who were facing difficulties meeting requirements for rural grant and payment schemes due to the hot and dry weather.

Since then, Defra has approved temporary prescription adjustments (TPA) to some Countryside Stewardship (CS) and Environmental Stewardship (ES options) due to the extreme challenges that farmers have faced this year. The ‘Options with temporary adjustments’ document lists those options that have a temporary adjustment.

Separate guidance has also been published for CS option 'AB9 Winter bird food plots'.

Agreement holders can choose to either implement their existing options without adjustment, or apply to Natural England to implement the options with adjustments, using this form.

These adjustments apply from 14th September to 31st December 2018, unless otherwise stated in the detail of the individual options.

From 1st January 2019 all options will revert to their original prescriptions.