No-till farming (updated for SFI26)

What you must do

You must sow all seeds on land entered into this action using a ‘no-till’ direct drill. This can include tine drills, disc drills and precision seed drills, or broadcasting equipment. Any following harrow tines must be rearward facing. You must not use conventional or shallow min-till cultivation machinery (except for a stubble rake or straw harrow with rearward facing tines): to prepare the land for sowing crops between harvesting (or destroying cover crops) and sowing crops Where necessary, you can carry out the following on land that does not contain historic or archaeological features: low disturbance subsoiling to reduce soil compaction during the crop rotation – for example, if there’s bad weather when you harvest the crop mole draining to help natural drainage You must keep evidence if you do subsoiling or mole draining. You must not carry out subsoiling or mole draining on land with historic or archaeological features. This includes scheduled monuments (which would require scheduled monument consent). Read section 10.2 ‘Scheduled monument consent’ in the SFI26 scheme information for further details.

When to do it

You must do this action: from its start date, unless you have a crop in place when this action starts which does not meet this action’s requirements throughout each year of this action’s duration If there’s a crop in place when this action starts which does not meet this action’s requirements, you must do this action: as soon as possible after the crop is harvested or destroyed within 12 months of this action’s start date

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 (including if you’ve had to carry out low disturbance subsoiling to reduce compaction or mole draining) and associated invoices photographs and 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