Whole crop spring cereals and overwinter stubble

What you must do

You must: establish a spring cereal crop (not maize or sorghum) harvest the cereal crop as whole crop silage remove the grain and straw from the land after harvest, leave the stubble over the autumn and winter months As long as this action’s aim can reasonably be expected to be achieved, you can: undersow a seed mix into the spring cereal crop use a blend or mix of cereals You must not apply insecticides to the spring cereal crop after around mid-March, until it’s harvested. You must not do the following on the stubble area: top or graze it apply any fertilisers, manures or lime You must not apply herbicides to the area entered into this action, apart from those containing the following permitted active ingredients: amidosulfuron clodinafop-propargyl fenoxaprop-P-ethyl pinoxaden tri-allate It may not be possible for you to use these permitted active ingredients on all crops. It’s your responsibility to confirm whether herbicides are approved for use on the affected crop. You can use an existing spring cereal crop to get paid for this action if it: meets this action’s requirements is not already being paid for under another environmental land management scheme action or option, such as CS option AB7 (whole crop cereals)

When to do it

You must do this action each year of its 3-year duration. If this action’s start date means it’s too late to establish the cereal crop, you must establish it within 12 months of this action’s start date. In the final year of this action’s duration, you must do this action until the end of the winter months or this action’s end date, whichever is earlier.

Evidence to keep

You must keep written evidence that land entered into this action is not at risk of soil erosion or surface runoff. You can use the soil management plan you’ve already produced for SFI24 action CSAM1 or SFI23 action SAM1 to identify this. You must also keep evidence to show what you’ve done to complete this action, such as: field operations at a land parcel level and associated invoices photographs or other documentation If it’s not clear that you’ve done this action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve its aim, we may ask for this evidence. You must supply the evidence if we ask for it.

SFI26 actions v2.0, updated 7 July 2026 — verified 1 Aug 2026. Open official guidance