CAB17: Winter bird food on arable and horticulture land
Source: gov.uk (2025-09-10)

What you must do to get paid for this CSHT action and advice on how to do it.

This action is part of Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT). You must read the CSHT guidance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/countryside-stewardship-higher-tier-csht) before you apply.

Duration

5 years

How much you’ll be paid

£853 per hectare (ha) per year

Action’s aim

This action’s aim is that there’s an established winter bird food mix growing in blocks or strips, with plants that:
- grow and flower during the spring and summer
- set seed to produce a supply of small seeds from late autumn until late winter
The purpose of this is to:
- provide food resources for smaller farmland birds especially in late autumn and winter
- encourage flowering plants in the summer, which will benefit insects including bumblebees, solitary bees, butterflies and hoverflies
- support an integrated pest management approach if located close to cropped areas
Where you can do this action

You can do this action on eligible land that’s located below the moorland line.

Eligible land

You can do this action on land that’s:
- an eligible land type
- registered with an eligible land cover on your digital maps
- declared with a land use code (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/land-use-codes-rural-payments) which is compatible with the eligible land cover
Available area you can enter into this action

Total or part of the available area in the land parcel.

Rotational or static action

This action is rotational or static. This means you can either:
- move the action every year
- keep it at the same location each year
Limited area action

This action has a 25% limit on the amount of land that can be entered into a CSHT agreement. The limit will apply to the area of land with limited area actions in CSHT and SFI agreements added together. For example, if you have 10% of land in an SFI limited area action, you can only have 15% of land in a CSHT limited area action.

Read section 3.4: ‘Limited area actions’ in the CSHT scheme guidance for more information.

What to do

Your Natural England adviser will assess your land. They’ll work with you to adapt and agree the activities you must do to achieve this action’s aim. All mandatory activities will be set out in your agreement document.

To get paid for this action, you must:
- establish and maintain an agreed area of winter bird food blocks or strips, using a seed mix agreed with your Natural England adviser
- re-establish one-year mixes annually and 2 year mixes every other year to maintain seed production
- keep winter bird food plots for a specific time agreed with your Natural England adviser – normally around the middle of February
- establish blocks or strips of winter bird food using an agreed seed mix at a time agreed with your adviser
You must not sow the following crops: artichokes, canary grass, giant and intermediate sorghum, maize, miscanthus, sweet clover, tic beans in your seed mixes.

In the final year of this action’s duration, you must do this action until the end of the agreement or action end date, whichever is earlier.

When to do it

You must do this action each year of its duration.

Evidence to keep

You must keep evidence to show what you have done to complete this action. If it’s not clear that you have done this action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve its aim, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) may ask for this evidence.

You must supply the evidence if they ask for it, including:
- field operations at a land parcel level
- associated invoices
- photographs
Other actions or options you can do on the same area as this action

You can do the following actions or options on the same area in a land parcel as this action.

Some actions or options can only be done on the same area if they’re done at a different time of year to this action.

You can do the following actions or options on the eligible boundaries of a land parcel entered into this action:
- CSHT actions: CWT3, CHRW4
- SFI 2024 actions: CHRW1, CHRW2, CHRW3, BND1, BND2, WBD10
- SFI 2023 actions: HRW1, HRW2, HRW3
- CS option BE3 (management of hedgerows)
Consents, permissions and licensing requirements

To apply for this action, you’ll need:
- Scheduled Monument Consent (https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/planning/consents/smc/) from Historic England for any work on scheduled monuments
- consent from Natural England for any activity on land designated as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/protected-areas-sites-of-special-scientific-interest#get-consent-to-carry-out-operations-on-your-land)
You may need to:
- agree an implementation plan or feasibility study with your Natural England adviser
- get advice from your Natural England adviser if you have other historic or archaeological features on your agreement land
- get a wildlife licence (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wildlife-licences) from Natural England if your activities affect a protected species or their habitat
All historic and archaeological features (including scheduled monuments) are identified in your Historic Environment Farm Environment Record (HEFER).

If you’re a tenant, it’s your responsibility to check whether your tenancy agreement allows you to complete what’s required in the actions you choose. You may need your landlord’s consent.

Capital grants to support this action

If you need to complete an implementation plan or a feasibility study before you apply, you can apply for capital grants plans funding (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/capital-items-guidance-for-applicants-and-agreement-holders#capital-grants-plans).

You can also apply for capital items (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/capital-items-guidance-for-applicants-and-agreement-holders) to help you achieve the action’s aims. Your Natural England adviser will discuss eligible capital items with you.

Advice to help you do this action

The following optional advice may help you to do this action. Your agreement document will set out all the activities you must do.

Choosing the right location

To maximise benefits for wildlife such as seed-eating birds, choose sites that:

are fertile

have a sunny aspect (south or west facing)

have a low weed burden

are close to complementary food and shelter habitats such as bumblebird mix, cultivated areas for arable plants, hedgerows, scrub, stubbles and supplementary winter bird food
- are known to support declining arable plants such as corn spurrey and pheasant’s eye
- are known to support or ground-nesting birds such as corn bunting and skylark
- are rectangular-shaped making management easier
- have easy access – avoid remote plots that can make it harder to carry out management at the right time
- are away from buildings to reduce the risk of vermin
Plot size, shape and distribution

You can provide winter bird food as a part or whole-field action.

Larger blocks or strips (between around 0.4 and 5ha in size) can feed more birds for longer.

Distributing multiple areas of winter bird food across your farm can help farmland birds and other wildlife:
- find food and shelter
- move more easily and safely between complementary habitats (such as hedgerows, ponds and field margins)
Small, isolated areas of winter bird food provide less benefits for wildlife.

What to sow

Aim to sow a minimum of 6 seed-bearing crops with no single crop group (such as cereals or brassicas) making up more than 90% of the total seed mix by weight.

You can use seed mixes containing less than 6 seed-producing crops when targeting priority, range-restricted farmland birds such as cirl bunting. You’ll need to agree all bespoke seed mixes with your Natural England adviser.

Sow appropriate seeds to allow a wide range of farmland birds to forage, for example:
- sow small seed-bearing crops that the farmland birds on your holding like to eat – for example, linnets enjoy eating the seeds of brassica crops (such as fodder radish, mustard and kale) while corn buntings and yellowhammer prefer cereals such as barley, wheat and white millet, and tree sparrows eat red millet.
- sow seed-bearing crops from at least 3 of cereal (such as barley, oats, wheat and white millet), brassica (such as fodder radish, gold of pleasure and mustard), non-brassica oilseeds (such as linseed) and miscellaneous crops (such as sunflower and teasel) – you do not need to sow all seed-bearing crops across 100% of your plots – manage your crops and plots as necessary
Annual (1-year) mixtures can include a range of cereal, brassica or other small seed-bearing crops.

Biennial (2-year) mixtures can include crops such as kale, stubble turnip or teasel that flower. These will set seed in the second summer after sowing.

Annual mixes can produce higher and more reliable yields of seed. Biennial mixes retained into a second year can provide vital food and shelter for grey partridge and other farmland birds (such as song thrush). They can do this during the spring and early summer breeding season while resown winter bird food plots are becoming established.

Cereal crops typically sown in winter bird food plots include:
- spring barley
- spring oats
- spring rye
- spring triticale
- spring wheat
- red millet
- white millet
Brassica crops typically sown in winter bird food plots are:
- fodder radish
- forage rape
- gold of pleasure
- kale
- mustard
- stubble turnip
Other seed-bearing crops include:
- buckwheat
- chicory
- dwarf sunflower
- linseed
- teasel
You can include crops such as dwarf sorghum and Japanese reed millet in winter bird food seed mixes. These crops provide limited seed provision but vital structural support to weaker-stemmed crops prone to brackling or lodging (or both). Keep seed rates as low as possible to minimise the risk of structural crops outcompeting the sown seed-bearing crops.

An example 1-year cereal, millet or oilseed mix is:
- dwarf sunflower – 15kg per ha
- linseed – 10kg per ha
- spring barley – 5kg per ha
- spring oats – 5kg per ha
- spring triticale – 5kg per ha
- spring wheat – 5kg per ha
- white millet – 4kg per ha
- red millet – 2kg per ha
- gold of pleasure – 3kg per ha
- quinoa – 3kg per ha
- fodder radish – 1kg per ha
- white mustard – 1kg per ha
- brown mustard – 1kg per ha
The total seed rate is 60kg per ha – aim to sow it every year.

To maximise seed production, drill the spring barley, oats, triticale and wheat separately from early April on wide (25 to 40cm ) row spacings. Then broadcast or drill in a very shallow way the remaining seeds between mid-May and mid-June.

An example 2-year cereal, millet or oilseed mix is:
- linseed – 10kg per ha
- dwarf sunflower – 8kg per ha
- spring barley or spring oats – 8kg per ha
- spring triticale – 8kg per ha
- spring wheat – 8kg per ha
- white millet – 4kg per ha
- red millet – 2kg per ha
- gold of pleasure – 3kg per ha
- kale – 3kg per ha
- quinoa – 3kg per ha
- fodder radish – 1kg per ha
- white mustard – 1kg per ha
- brown mustard – 1kg per ha
The total seed rate is 60kg per ha – aim to sow it every 2 years.

When to sow

Sowing from May into early June is appropriate for most crops when:
- soils are warmer to help seed germination
- the risk of frosts has passed
This will also:
- make sure seed-bearing crops have a long enough season to grow, flower and set ripe seed
- give you more time to re-sow any areas that fail to establish
How to sow

Sow the seed mix into a seedbed that’s:
- firm
- fine
- level (not cloddy)
- warm
- weed free
- contains some moisture at the time of sowing
This will usually help the seed to germinate.

You can either:
- broadcast seeds onto the surface of the seedbed
- shallow-drill the seeds up to a depth of 1 to 2cm – if your mix contains some very small-seeded crops (such as gold of pleasure, mustard, quinoa and red or white millet) sow no deeper than 1cm
After you have sown the seed mix, you can roll the seedbed (if the soil is dry enough). This will:
- improve seed-to-soil contact (to improve germination)
- retain moisture
- reduce the risk of slug damage (particularly within cloddy seedbeds)
After 2 to 4 weeks, check your sown areas:
- have germinated
- for signs of damage from deer, flea beetle, pigeons or slugs
If seeds have not established, re-sow where necessary. Re-sow fast-growing crops such as buckwheat and mustard that can germinate, flower and set seed in time for winter.

Managing winter bird food

To maximise the food and shelter available for seed-eating farmland birds and other wildlife, you may need to:
- apply fertiliser to help crops such as kale outgrow flea beetle damage, smother competitive weeds and maximise the supply of small seeds from late autumn until late winter
- manage diseases by moving plots appropriately for a year or two so you are not continuously sowing them in the same location – brassicas (such as kale) are particularly susceptible to club root
- manage pests such as flea beetle, deer, pigeons, rabbits and slugs
- manage weeds that threaten seed establishment or limit the crop yield
Manage problem weeds by using cultural (non-chemical) or chemical methods of control such as localised mechanical weeding, hand rogueing and herbicides as necessary. Always get professional advice from a BASIS-qualified agronomist when considering using herbicides within diverse winter bird food seed mixes. Herbicides are not necessarily legally approved or safe to use on all the seed-bearing crops growing in your winter bird food plots.

To minimise the build-up of diseases, pests and weeds over time, consider alternating between sowing cereal and brassica-based mixes on non-rotational plots every few years.

How long to keep winter bird food plots for

Seed-eating birds generally experience a glut of food in the autumn immediately after harvest. They increasingly struggle to find food during the ‘hungry gap’ – the period between crops being harvested and new seed sources becoming available in spring.

Retain all winter bird food plots until at least mid-February.

You can keep winter bird food plots into March. This will help maximise the availability of food and shelter for farmland birds and other wildlife over winter. This is more feasible for plots located on light or medium soils that you can cultivate more easily in the spring. Cultivate before sowing a following crop or re-sowing winter bird food.

At the end of the winter bird food retention period, you may need to flail areas of tall vegetation to make it easier to prepare a seed bed for following crops.

Re-sow annual mixes every year and 2-year mixes every other year.

Getting extra funding

With approval from Natural England, you can sometimes use the CSP9: Support for threatened species (https://www.gov.uk/find-funding-for-land-or-farms/csp9-support-for-threatened-species) supplement with this action to cover additional costs. These are costs you may incur when establishing or managing areas of winter bird food on arable and horticultural land for priority species.