Legumes on improved grassland

What you must do

You must establish and maintain legumes on improved grassland entered into this action. You can use one or more type of legume, such as: red clover white clover alsike clover sainfoin lucerne bird’s foot trefoil You can establish the legumes by: adding them to an existing grass sward sowing a mix of grass and legumes Once established, you must maintain the legumes. To do this, you must manage them in a way that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim. You can maintain existing areas of legumes on improved grassland to get paid this action if they: meet this action’s requirements are not already being for under another environmental land management scheme option, such as CS option GS4 (legume and herb-rich swards)

When to do it

If you’re doing this action on the same area of land for this action’s 3-year duration, you must: establish the legumes within 12 months of this action’s start date maintain the area of legumes in each subsequent year of this action’s duration If you’re rotating this action around your farm, each year of your SFI agreement you must do it for a period of time that could reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim.

Evidence to keep

You must 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