CAB10: Unharvested cereal headland
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

£1,072 per hectare (ha) per year

Action’s aim

This action’s aim is that there’s an open-structured, spring cereal crop which:
- is growing in strips or plots
- remains unharvested during the summer, autumn and winter months
The purpose of this is to:
- provide a summer food source for farmland birds and insects
- help establish a diverse range of arable plants and other broad-leaved plants
- provide a habitat that’s present over the winter for insects and food for seed-eating farmland birds
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 can be 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: ‘Actions with a limited area’ in the CSHT applicant’s guide 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 retain a cereal crop (not maize) as agreed with your Natural England adviser
- make sure each strip or plot of seed is at least 6m wide
- create an open structure by managing the crop as agreed with your Natural England adviser
- retain the unharvested headland until a time agreed with your adviser (usually around the middle of February)
You must not:
- apply fertilisers, manures or lime
- apply insecticides after mid-March each year
You must also not apply herbicides, apart from those containing:
- 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.

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.

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

You can establish unharvested cereal headlands on a range of soil types.

To maximise the benefits for wildlife, choose sites that:
- are not highly fertile, as unharvested cereal headlands tend to lodge (fall over)
- get plenty of sunlight (south or west facing)
- have a low weed burden
- are close to complementary habitats such as cultivated areas for arable plants, flower-rich margins, hedgerows, scrub and winter bird food to provide food and shelter all year round (including nesting opportunities)
- 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 deliver unharvested cereal headlands as a part or whole-field action.

Distributing multiple blocks or strips of different sizes of unharvested cereal headlands 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 unharvested cereal headlands typically provide less benefits for wildlife.

Sowing cereal crops

You can sow both single and blends of the following cereal crops:
- barley
- oats
- red millet
- rye
- triticale
- wheat
- white millet
You can also include dwarf sorghum to help provide structural support to weaker-stemmed crops such as barley.

Sowing companion crops

You can establish companion crops within your unharvested cereal headlands to provide valuable flower and insect-rich foraging habitat for invertebrates, farmland birds and small mammals.

Fast-growing companion crops can, in some cases, result in fewer opportunities for:
- ground nesting birds, such as skylark, by reducing the availability of bare ground and short vegetation during the spring and summer breeding season prior to harvest
- rare arable plants to find space to germinate, flower and set seed
When to sow

You can sow crops anytime from early February (if ground conditions allow) to May.

When including minor cereals such as millet in a blend, aim to sow in May when there is a lower risk of frost. Alternatively, you can sow the main cereal component such as barley or wheat (or both) earlier in the spring. Then sow the remaining millet in a separate pass in May.

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 1cm 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
To create an open structured crop suitable for farmland birds, invertebrates and declining arable plants, you can:
- sow your crop with a wider (25cm to 40cm) row spacing
- use a reduced seed rate to minimise the risk of weaker stemmed crops such as spring barley from lodging
As a guide, a seed rate of between 60 and 80 Kg/ha is appropriate for conventional cereal crops such as barley, oats and wheat. Where red or white millet are also sown a combined seed rate of between 5 and 10 kg/ha for these crops is recommended.

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
Managing unharvested cereal headlands

To manage problem weeds, you can use cultural (non-chemical) or chemical methods of control such as:
- hand rogueing (pulling)
- permitted herbicides
You need to check that any permitted herbicide you use:
- is legally approved
- is safe to use on companion crops (such as crimson clover, field bean, lupin, pea and white clover) sown with the whole crop cereal
It is advisable to get professional advice from a BASIS-qualified agronomist when considering using herbicides within whole crop cereal containing a diverse mix of crops.

To reduce disturbance to ground-nesting birds, such as corn bunting and skylark, avoid mechanical weeding between April and the end of August. This will also allow arable plants to flower and set seed.

Retaining unharvested cereal headlands

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

Retain all unharvested cereal headlands until at least mid-February, ideally it is best to keep them 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 your unharvested cereal headland.

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

You’ll need to resow all unharvested cereals headlands each 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 unharvested cereal headlands for priority species.