2011 Single Farm Payment (Claiming Land with Scrub)

Scrub is ineligible and the advice is available to help you work out what deductions you need to make for scrub in your fields.  General advice is contained below and further information is available on pages 6 to 12 to the booklet Guide to Land Eligibility.

Scrub may contain hawthorn, blackthorn, gorse (whin), bramble, honeysuckle, dog rose, bushy willows (sally), or stunted hazel, with few or no mature trees present.

Scrub may be dense or scattered.

Scrub tends to grow in confined areas within a field. It may be so dense that animals cannot penetrate it or there may be scattered scrub throughout the field.

You will have to calculate how much ineligible land (that is, scrub) is present and record this as OT13 on your field data sheet (FDS). You need to assess how dense the scrub is and how much area it takes up. The guidance outlined below will assist you in the calculation. You must ensure that the area of the ineligible land you deduct from your claim is at least equal to the area of scrub present.

To assess the amount of scrub in your field, you need to consider if there are:

• Areas of dense scrub;

• Scattered scrub which is confined to particular areas within a field;

• Scattered scrub which is spread throughout a field.

Dense scrub is defined as areas within a field that contain scrub vegetation that is so dense that no grazing is possible within that area. All areas covered by dense scrub which are greater than 0.01ha within a field must be deducted from your claim. Furthermore, areas which are smaller than 0.01ha but which add up to more than 0.01ha within a field must also be deducted.

Scattered scrub is where there are numerous small bushes or clumps of scrub present and grazing is possible between the clumps. In these cases it would not be feasible to calculate the area taken up by each individual clump. Therefore we have developed a scorecard to help you calculate the ineligible area which must be deducted from you claim.

The scorecard is not to be used for dense scrub – you must deduct these areas first in their entirety. In other words, only use the scorecard if it is not practical to deduct the area occupied by each portion of scrub. The scorecard must be applied only to the area where scattered scrub is present. It must not be applied to the entire field unless the scattered scrub is uniformly present throughout the entire field.  Using the scorecard at field level when there is dense scrub and scattered scrub is only present in a portion of the field could mean that the area you calculate as ineligible may be too low and penalties may be applied to your claim.  Further details on the scorecard are contained on pages 6 to 12 to the booklet Guide to Land Eligibility.

The removal of individual areas of scrub up to 0.1 ha is permitted on undesignated land without prior written permission from DARD. Undesignated land is land not designated by DOE Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) as a Natura 2000 site, Special Protection Area (SPA), Special Area of Conservation (SAC), or Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI). Scrub must not be removed between 01 March and 31 August. If you want to remove an area of scrub of more than 0.1 ha, written permission is required from DARD. You should contact Countryside Management Delivery Branch.

Where DARD refuses to grant permission for removal of scrub, it must be retained and remains ineligible for SFP. It may be eligible for agri-environment or forestry schemes as transitional woodland. Removal of scrub on designated sites, for example, Natura 2000 site, SPA, SAC or ASSI is only permitted with written consent from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA).

Bare ground (after scrub removal) will remain ineligible until grass cover has been established. You should note that for land to be claimed for SFP, it must be in eligible use for the entire calendar year.

Even after scrub has been removed, DARD may consider whether your land was previously eligible since 2005 using aerial photography.