Many farmers will look around the edges of their fields to gather up significant payments under GLAS.

Tillage farmers who are practicing min-till are attracted the most to the scheme, but many others are looking at arable grass margins and even coppicing hedges as actions. Some farmers are looking at groves of natural trees or wild bird cover to square off a corner that has always been tricky to maximise.

Rejuvenating or making new hedges

Thousands of kilometres of new hedges were planned under REPS and AOES. While many farmers could find areas to plant another new hedge under GLAS, the limit of 200 metres, even at €5/metre/year, is not as attractive when costs, labour and fencing are deducted.

More farmers are looking closely at coppicing or rejuvenating overgrown hedgerows to increase biodiversity and enhance the visual landscape. It is paid at a lower rate of €2.20/metre/year. However, you can do 1,000 metres and there is less work involved, meaning more money can be made.

External farm areas will only yield payments where they adjoin a public road, a private laneway or a watercourse or water body. In other words, you must have control of both sides of the hedgerow being coppiced for ongoing maintenance.

Hedges can only be coppiced between 1 September and 28 February annually and you must have coppiced all selected hedgerows by 28 February 2017.

You must coppice at least 10 metres in any one place. You simply cut the stems to less than 15cm from the ground with a chainsaw of circular saw. You then infill the gaps that will not be filled in by regrowth. Plant a minimum of four plants per metre consisting of whitethorn, blackthorn or holly in line with the existing hedge.

Any plants that die must be replaced during the next dormant season. All newly coppiced hedges in a grass or tillage field must be fenced off and protected from livestock from the time the hedge is coppiced. However, where the coppiced hedgerow bounds a private laneway, public road or watercourse, fencing is not required on the laneway/road or water body side as long as the hedge is not being damaged by livestock.

The fence inside must be stock proof and fit for purpose. Grass and other competing vegetation must be controlled and plants must be trimmed over the course of the contract to ensure a dense hedgerow develops.

Species that are suitable for coppicing include alder, blackthorn, ash, birch, hawthorn, hazel, holly, sweet chestnut, sycamore and willow.

New hedges payment €5/m/year max 200m.

Coppicing €2.20/m/year, max 1,000m.

Arable margins

Tillage farmers will see arable grass margin as one of the easiest ways to boost payments under GLAS.

The aim is to provide a habitat for flora and fauna, increase biodiversity and help protect water quality. It also takes out the unproductive headlands, although they still have to be maintained.

Tillage farmers have the option of leaving a 3, 4 or 6 metre grass margin along the full length of the LPIS parcel of field boundary. A farmer gets 35c, 50c or 70c for picking 3 metre, 4 metre or 6 metre margins respectively, although there are lower limits in length the wider you go.

The margins have to be in place for all crops that will be harvested in 2016, so it starts with winter crops this autumn.

Where the margin is established along a watercourse, an additional 2-metre unsown (with an arable crop) and unfertilised margin must be in place between the watercourse and the arable grass margin.

The grass margins must remain in the same location for the duration of the contract. You can choose different arable grass margin widths within the same LPIS parcels, but only on different field/LPIS boundaries.

The grass seed sown must contain at least 60% Cocksfoot or Timothy. Grass seed labels and receipts should be kept for the duration of the GLAS contract.

Soil cultivation cannot be carried out within the margin once established. The margin must be mulched, mown or grazed at least once per year, but not between 1 March and 15 August. You can make silage or hay. Fertilizer or lime cannot be applied to the margin. Pesticides cannot be applied to the margin except for the spot treatment of noxious and/or invasive weeds.

Grass margin payment per year and maximum length under GLAS:

3m 35c/m/year 7,000m.

4m 50c/m/year 5,000m.

6m 70c/m/year 3,500m.

Stone walls

Farmers with dry stone walls will obviously choose the option to maintain them. It pays 70c/metre for up to 4,000 metres.

External farm stone walls that front on to a public roadway, private laneway or waterbody where the farmer has control over both sides of the wall for maintenance are paid at 70c. Otherwise you get half rate. Internal wall lengths can only be counted once and must be maintained on both sides. Walls with scrub on or against them are not eligible for payment

A stone wall that bounds a farmyard is eligible for payment at the full rate provided the participant has control of both sides of the wall for maintenance.

70c/m/year max 4,000m.

Watercourses

Riparian zones are proving attractive for farmers with watercourses on their farms. When it comes to riparian margins, the wider you go, the more you get paid. Up to €3.60/metre/year is paid on the maximum 30-metre buffer zone created. The drawback is that they have to be fenced and cannot be grazed.

The margin must be mulched or mown at least once per year but not between 1 March and 15 August. You can take off what you mow. Fertilizers cannot be applied.

Riparian zone payments for different widths:

3-metre: €0.90/m/year

6-metre: €1.20/m/year

10-metre: €1.60/m/year

30-metre: €3.60/m/year

Keeping stock out of watercourses

The other, in some ways more attractive, option with watercourses is to fence all watercourses to a minimum of 1.5 metres from the top of the bank to exclude stock by 31 December 2015. The fencing must be stock proof, fit for purpose and permanent stakes must be used. Livestock drinking points are not permitted. An alternative water supply must be provided for livestock.

Payment €1.50/m/year.

Groves

Groves of trees must be planted in one location with a minimum area of 0.05ha with 250 plants and maximum area of 0.09ha with 450 plants. A minimum of two native species must be used and plants must be a minimum of 40cm tall.You get paid 90c/whip per year but the real benefit is the square corner as much as the money. Grass and other competing vegetation must be controlled around the trees, until they have become established. Trees must be protected from livestock and fenced off from the time of planting until the end of the contract

Payment 90c/whip/year (max 450 whips).

Catch crops

To qualify, you must establish a catch crop annually by 15 September either by broadcasting or drilling. Ploughing is not permitted. You must sow a suitable cover crop which consists of a mix of at least two species in an integral mix from the list that includes oats, peas beans and many more. The catch crops must remain in place from the date of sowing to 1 December annually and can be grazed after that date. The minimum area is 10ha to ensure priority access or 4ha general action and the maximum area is 32ha, which would get up to the €5,000 cap. This area can be rotated from one year to the next unless you are using it as an equivalence feature to comply with crop diversification.

Payment €155/ha/year.

Double funding

Where catch crops are used for equivalence under the crop diversification measure the payment is reduced by around €30/ha to €125/ha, but farmers must also have catch crops on all their tillage parcels for the GLAS contract to comply. Tillage farmers have to be aware of the double funding implications where actions selected under GLAS are also submitted as ecological focus areas. If a tillage farmer is well above the 5% EFAs requirement, he/she can opt not to submit the option such as wild bird cover or tillage margins as EFAs. The Department has not said how much the cuts to GLAS payments could be, but it is believed they could be significant.