Winter bird food
Winter bird food provides a tailored food source for farmland birds throughout autumn and winter.
- Establish a 6 or 8 m winter bird food strip along a field boundary
- Minimum payment area is 0.25 ha; maximum area is 3 ha
- Protect from livestock using a fence that is fit for purpose
- Establish the crop by 15 May using the following mix (see table for sowing rates)
- At least one cereal: spring oats/triticale/wheat/barley
- At least two of the following: linseed, oil-seed rape, phacelia, fodder radish, mustard, spring vetch, lucerne, chicory or birds-foot trefoil
- Once sown, only spot treatment of noxious and invasive weeds is allowed. Pesticides are not permitted.
- Harvesting of the crop is not permitted and it must remain in situ until 1 March the following year
- Fertiliser can be applied up to a maximum of half the N and P rate for spring oats (as described in Statutory Instrument Number 113 of 2022)
| Species | Monoculture seed rate (kg/ha) |
| Spring oats | 150 |
| Spring triticale | 180 |
| Spring wheat | 180 |
| Spring barley | 160 |
| Linseed | 50 |
| Spring oil-seed rape | 6 |
| Phacelia | 8 |
| Fodder radish | 10 |
| Mustard | 15 |
| Spring vetch | 40 |
| Lucerne | 25 |
| Chicory | 10 |
| Birdsfoot trefoil | 12 |