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The Department says this action can be delivered on a full or split LPIS parcel. Where the action is on a split parcel, it must be digitised out and marked on the map submitted with the GLAS application.
The wild bird cover must remain in the same place for the duration of the GLAS contract. The location is important – the site should be capable of producing a cereal crop and preferably adjoining wildlife cover such as hedgerows, woodland and scrub. The minimum area is 1ha where it is taken as a priority action and 0.25ha where it is taken as a general action and maximum area for payment is 3ha. The minimum parcel size is 0.25ha.
Pre-sowing weed control can be used. Pesticides cannot be applied after sowing. However, spot treatment with herbicide for noxious weeds and invasive species is allowed. Parcels must be fenced off and stock proof from the time the crop is sown until 15 March of the following year.
Sowing in Roscommon
The Irish Farmers Journal visited Michael Naughton, an agricultural contractor and farmer from Fuerty, Co Roscommon. Michael was in the middle of sowing wild bird cover on his own land because it was part of his GLAS plan.
I decided to go with the wild bird cover action because it was one of the highest-paying in the scheme and I do tillage every year so I had the ways of doing it.
Michael set aside 2.46ha for the wild bird cover and fenced this area off to keep his cattle out. He decided to go with the two-year mix – it was more cost-effective for him because only one half would have to be sown each year. However, he said this is not suitable for every farmer because kale will not grow well on poor ground. He would advise farmers to go with the one-year mix if they are sowing wild bird cover on marginal ground.
He planted a hawthorn hedge along the new border but this was a separate GLAS action.
The land where the wild bird cover was sown is good arable land and was in spring barley last year. “Because it was in tillage previously all I did to prepare the seed bed was spray the area off with glyphosate, disced it twice, and half the area was sown with oats at 75kg/ha using a one-pass system and the other half got 4kg of kale that was mixed with fertiliser and broadcast via the fertiliser spreader,” said Michael.
Fertiliser
The whole area got two bags of 10:10:20 per acre, which is adequate for the Index 3 ground.
Once rolled there should be no reason to carry out any more work on the area until next year. He will manage the plots as shown in Table 2 over the next five years. The kale should grow again next year without the need to sow but he will have to disc the oats in again and sow more next year. In year three he will swap the two sections, so where the oats are he will sow kale and where the kale is he will sow oats.
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