Option 14 - Management of Grass Margins and Beetlebanks in Arable Fields
What this is about
This option will encourage the creation of grass strips in or around arable fields to benefit biodiversity and/or water quality.
What this will achieve
This management option aims to create a grass strip along the boundary of, or across an arable field. Grass strips can serve a dual purpose - supporting wildlife and/or reducing soil erosion.
Insects over-winter in the grass strips. Beneficial insects can include crop pollinators, and insects to control crop pests. Temporary grass margins can also support rare arable plants and provide food and cover for birds and small mammals.
Cross-field strips on sloping fields will help to reduce the risk of erosion and soil and nutrient run-off. Slower surface-water flow rates can also help to reduce flooding downstream.
BAP species that may benefit include Grey Partridge, Linnet, Bullfinch, Spotted Flycatcher, Corn Bunting, Purple Ramping-Fumitory and Cornflower.
What you must do 
Requirements
- Use a diffuse pollution audit to identify suitable locations for grass strips intended to prevent or minimise soil erosion or nutrient losses to nearby watercourses and lochs. The diffuse pollution audit must be carried out by the start of the 5-year agreement.
- Use an environmental audit to identify suitable locations for beetle banks. The environmental audit must be carried out by the start of the 5-year agreement.
- Manage a strip between 1.5m and 6m in width in an arable field.
- Where you intend to benefit Hen Harriers, Corn Buntings, Barn Owl or Kestrel, we recommend the strip is at least 6m wide.
- When you do not plan to sow the entire field to an arable crop, the minimum width of the arable area adjacent to the grass strip must be 30m.
- Establish the strips by sowing a suitable mix of grass seed, including at least one species of nectar-feeding plant such as red clover, into a sterile seedbed.
- Do not apply fertiliser, slurry or farmyard manure to the strips.
- Scrub control is not allowed except with the prior written agreement of Scottish Ministers.
- Pesticides must not be applied to the site.
- Spot treatment of scheduled weeds (Common Ragwort, Spear Thistle, Creeping or Field Thistle, Curled Dock or Broad Leaved Dock) or non-native invasive species (Giant Hogweed, Himalayan Balsam, Rhododendron Ponticum and Japanese Knotweed) is permitted without prior written approval.
- You will not be eligible for any additional payment to control scrub or weeds.
- Create a sterile strip up to 0.5m in width along the inner edge of the grass margin and maintain it by rotovation and by applying herbicide. Such a strip will provide young birds with an area on which to dry out and it will also act as a buffer to prevent the spread of weeds from the grass margin into the crop.
- You can graze or top the grass margin or beetlebank after harvest, provided the average height of vegetation in the strip is not taken below 100 mm.
- Any area adjacent to the grass margins or beetlebanks must remain in an arable crop, such as cereals, linseeds, oilseed, root crops, fruit crops or protein crops, including vining peas, for the duration of the agreement, to obtain full conservation benefit from this option. In a mixed arable situation where an area will be put into grass or other non-eligible crop after 3 years, you can transfer the beetlebank/margin to another eligible field for the remaining 2 years of the agreement. In this situation, a beetlebank/grass margin may only be transferred once during the 5-year agreement. On organic farms, where the normal rotation is a 2 year cycle, you can transfer the beetlebank/margin twice during the agreement period to ensure that the area is in an eligible crop.
Who can apply
All land managers are eligible to apply for this option.
How to apply
Complete Section 4 of the LMO application form and columns M and N of your SAF Data Sheet using code LMOGMB.
Eligibility criteria
Land receiving payments for similar management under other agri-environment schemes is not eligible under this option.
Rate of support
This is a 5 year commitment. We will pay £473.76 per hectare per year. We will pay at the end of each year.
Inspections/Verification
The inspector will check the requirements of the option are being met (as detailed above under 'What you must do') by a visual assessment on the day of inspection.
You must comply with the requirements of cross compliance and the minimum requirements for fertiliser and plant protection products and you must avoid damaging or destroying any historic or archaeological features or areas.