AEOS Wild Bird Cover?

JohnBoy

Hi,

Just wondering does anyone have any experience of the AEOS Wild Bird Cover measure?

it sounds promising, paying €869 per hectare.

This is the specification:

You can choose this action if you grow a specific Wild Bird Cover crop seed mix in a whole LPIS parcel for every year of your contract. The LPIS parcel(s) you choose must be shown on the map. You cannot do this on short term rented lands, Natura 2000 designated lands or commonages, or on lands where waders breed at high concentrations.

If you select this action the only other actions you can select on this LPIS parcel are Coppicing of Hedgerows, Laying of Hedgerows or Stone Wall Maintenance


Requirements:
Each year of your contract (except where it is a 2 year mix), sow a seed crop mix that provides winter cover and a food source for farmland birds and other fauna. Alternatively, you can sow a combination of one and two year mixes over the contract period.

The choice of site is critical. The crop must be grown on suitable lands capable of producing and sustaining the crop i.e. soil and aspect that are cable of producing a cereal crop. The crop must be grown in the same ground for the duration of the contract i.e. it cannot be moved. Consideration should be given to growing the crop adjacent to cover. For example you might put it beside hedgerows or near woodland or scrub.

The minimum area to be sown is 0.5 of a hectare.

Plots must be a minimum of 20 metres wide. The maximum area for payment is 3 hectares per holding.

Where the applicant has grazing livestock, all margins of wild bird cover must be fenced or otherwise inaccessible to all livestock. The fence must be stockproof and fit for purpose.


Fertiliser is allowed at a maximum of half rate for the crop prescribed in Statutory Instrument 610 of 2011.


Pre-sowing weed control can be used. After the crop is sown, you cannot use pesticides (including herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, slug pellets and growth regulators).

At least two different crop types must be sown as the mix (e.g. cereals and brassicas). The crop must be spring sown, not later than May 31st.
Drilling is the preferred sowing method; however broadcasting of the seed is permitted. If you are broadcasting, increase the seed rates by one third for smaller seeds and a half for larger seeds – see table below.


No harvesting or grazing of wild bird cover can take place.
If the eligible area on farm is split into a number of parcels, each parcel must have a LPIS number and contain Wild Bird Cover crop mix.


Wild Bird Cover Crop Mixes
Wild Bird Cover can be made up of a mix that is sown every year or a mix where the Brassica is sown every other year. Recommended seed rates are lower than those for commercial crop production as a more open crop increases access for birds to fallen seeds and weeds.

One-year mixes must contain a cereal either oats or triticale and at least one species from the following: Phacelia, oilseed rape, linseed, and mustard. An example of a one-year mix is oats and linseed. This mix is a good option on heavier, acid soils e.g. 75 kg/ha of oats and 15 kg/ha of linseed. In the case of oats and linseed, these seeds can be mixed together and sown as that or they can be sown separately beside each other in the same plot i.e. 50% of the plot in oats and 50% of the plot in linseed. Where brassicas are sown as part of a one-year mix, they must be sown separately beside each other in the plot to avoid the brassica dominating over the cereal. Crops from one-year mixes must be retained from the time they become established, until the following March 15th.


Two-year mixes must contain kale and at least one from the following: oats, triticale, or linseed. Kale is included because it is a biennial plant; the others are annual plants and must be resown each year. Clubroot resistant varieties of Kale such as ‘Caledonian’ should be sown. These seeds must be sown separately beside each other in the same plot and they must be of approximately equal area. Each year the cereal crop must be re-established and every second year the brassica crop must be re-established. If you are using kale in the mix, the kale plot must be left untouched for two winters not ending before March 15th of the second winter. The oats, triticale or linseed must be retained from the time they become established, until the following March 15th.

Examples of two-year mixes are given below:
Mix|Drilling Rates|Broadcasting Rates
Kale and linseed|1.5 kg/ha of kale and 15 kg/ha of linseed|2 kg/ha of kale and 20 kg/ha of linseed
Kale and cereal (oats, triticale)|1.5 kg/ha of kale and 75 kg/ha of cereal|2 kg/ha of kale and 113 kg/ha of cereal


Do not include brassicas (oilseed rape, mustard etc.) if using the one-year mix as a break crop between a two-year mix that includes kale.

Has anyone here done it, have you any good or bad experiences, what's the likely input costs?

I'm thinking of doing it all myself except the initial spraying off, plough (in year one at least, coming from grass), tripleK, broadcast, maybe chain harrow(if the seed needs burying) and roll.

I see the costs as follows:
roundup + spraying
Diesel
Machinery
seed
fertiliser.

would you establish it for 250/ha? or could it cost twice that?

I have some ground that it could suit, and a couple of years organic matter being ploughed in shouldnt do the soil much harm.

padowado

This is my second year i sow it every year the teagasc
adviser told me the 2 year mix was not a great job it is
taken over by weeds and grass in the second year
if you know someone who sows 2 year mix have a talk to
them good luck

JohnBoy

what's it costing you to establish it?

nashmach

padowado wrote: »

This is my second year i sow it every year the teagasc
adviser told me the 2 year mix was not a great job it is
taken over by weeds and grass in the second year
if you know someone who sows 2 year mix have a talk to
them good luck

I'd definitely agree with that!

I'd go with kale and cereal - much easier to manage especially in the first year.

JohnBoy

Kale is a 2 year option though?

nashmach

JohnBoy wrote: »

Kale is a 2 year option though?

Sorry - that is what I get for speed reading.

Of the list oats and rape would my preference for year one and see how you go.

You'll be able to sow both with a Vicon then.