Supplementary winter feeding for farmland birds (AB12), what seed mix?

Grass And Grain said:

Thinking of adding this option to my Mid Tier application.

In the manual it says...

'spread the supplementary feed mixture specified in the agreement'

Anyone doing this option in an existing agreement?

What is the seed mix? Just wheat/barley, or is it a more expensive mixture that you need to buy in?

Thanks.

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From memory isn’t it 70% maximum cereals so add 20% osr and then you just have to buy/source 10% of millet/sunflower seed or similar and keep paperwork as evidence for that correct amount.

If you home save seed then you could use the 'cleanings': mixed up splits and lights, and no doubt a weed seed or two.

I've been feeding a mix of soft wheat, oat cleanings with a little OSR . Had a mob of 20+ yellow hammers feeding of it during the snow last week; not in a scheme, just a few pailfuls scattered about the yards and garden. They seem to have finished off the oats and left the OSR and wheat.

PSQ said:

If you home save seed then you could use the 'cleanings': mixed up splits and lights, and no doubt a weed seed or two.

I've been feeding a mix of soft wheat, oat cleanings with a little OSR . Had a mob of 20+ yellow hammers feeding of it during the snow last week; not in a scheme, just a few pailfuls scattered about the yards and garden. They seem to have finished off the oats and left the OSR and wheat.

Click to expand...

The favourite here is chipped wheat coming out of the cleaner. Clouds of songbirds were making the most of it in the snow. Glad there’s lots of us doing our bit... without being paid for it... yet!

Grass And Grain said:

Thinking of adding this option to my Mid Tier application.

In the manual it says...

'spread the supplementary feed mixture specified in the agreement'

Anyone doing this option in an existing agreement?

What is the seed mix? Just wheat/barley, or is it a more expensive mixture that you need to buy in?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

We have signed into a similar scheme Winter bird food (AB9) have a bag in the shed, I'll have a look at the mix tomorrow if its any help?

Our seed mix is:
Winter triticale 13kg
winter barley 5kg
winter wheat 3kg
fodder radish 2kg
kale rape 1kg
oilseed rape. 1kg

Hope this is some use.

we have asked the question of natural England could the ab9 be in strips of single species as it is much easier to establish a single species drilling depth and seed bed and pest control
the answer from natural England shown below

‘I can’t see any rule preventing them establishing the AB9 plots as a series of 2 metre strips, with each strip consisting of a different crop. Agronomically, I would have thought it is a very good idea and comes back to ‘block’ cropping we have discussed before.


The ELS rules for EF2 deliberately allowed a similar approach. It says ‘the seed can be sown in separate drill widths or blocks within the option area’. I appreciate we are talking about MT but I know that my predecessor was more than happy to take a similar approach with Mid-Tier and Higher-Tier. In order to keep the prescriptions short and acceptable to the RPA, he didn’t include such detailed prescriptions in CS.


The only rule they would have to be wary of is where it says on the gov.uk web site and in the internal guidance - No single species should make up more than 70% by weight of the mix. As they are not using a standard ‘mix’ per se, I think they would have to show that across the plot as a whole, no one species comprises more than 70% by weight. That would hopefully avoid the plot being made up of mostly cereals.’