AHW2Supplementary winter bird food

What it actually is

GOV.UK's stated aim is that over the winter until mid-spring there's a mix of seeds spread on the ground at multiple feeding areas.

You can only apply for AHW2 if CAHL2, winter bird food on arable and horticultural land, is in the same SFI26 application, and the tonnage you can claim is capped at one tonne for every two hectares of CAHL2 you are doing.

Source: GOV.UK, AHW2 action page, checked 02/08/2026.

Our own way of putting that, which adds no requirement beyond what the GOV.UK action page sets out: it is the hungry gap action, and it is a bolt-on rather than a standalone. Sown winter bird food runs out somewhere in the new year, and this one pays you to keep putting seed on the ground until spring.

What it pays, and what that comes to

The rate is in the panel at the top of this page, and it is per tonne rather than per hectare. What you can claim follows from your CAHL2 area:

Source: the 1 tonne per 2 hectares cap, GOV.UK AHW2 action page, checked 02/08/2026, with the payment rate from Tilth's copy of the GOV.UK action catalogue. The 4 ha and 10 ha figures are illustrations; the rest is arithmetic on the rate and the cap.

Is it worth it on your ground?

Most action guides on this site compare the payment against what a three-year rotation would have returned on the same hectares. This one does not work that way, and there are two reasons. The ground it happens on is a track or a piece of hard standing rather than cropping ground, and the hectares it depends on are CAHL2 hectares, which have already been taken out of production and already had that comparison made on the CAHL2 page. Nothing further comes out of the rotation to do this.

So the whole question is narrower: what does a tonne of compliant mix cost you, and what is left over.

Route one: buy it ready mixed.

Source: seed price, Boston Seeds' own listed price for the AB12 Boston Basic Mix, looked up 02/08/2026, read in the inclusive-of-VAT state. The payment rate is from Tilth's copy of the GOV.UK action catalogue. The left-over figure is subtraction.

Route two: buy the small seeds and put your own cereals to it. The requirement is that cereals are no more than 70 per cent of the mix by weight and small non-cereal seeds are at least 30 per cent. So one route is to buy only the 30 per cent and make the rest up from grain in your own store.

Source: the 70/30 requirement, GOV.UK AHW2 action page, checked 02/08/2026, with the payment rate from Tilth's copy of the GOV.UK action catalogue. Gold Mix price, Boston Seeds' own listed price, looked up 02/08/2026, read in the inclusive-of-VAT state; the product page states it is intended to be mixed with 70 per cent of your own cereals. Own wheat valued at £206.00/t, AHDB Arable Market Report, 27/07/2026, East Anglia delivered, November 2026 delivery.

Our own note, which adds no requirement beyond what the GOV.UK action page sets out: charging yourself the market price for your own grain is a choice about how to keep the books, not a scheme rule. Value it differently and the figure moves. Whether the mix you make this way meets the requirement is a question about the bag in front of you, not about the arithmetic, so check the composition against the rules below before assuming it does.

What is left has to cover the driving. GOV.UK's advice section, which is explicitly not a requirement, gives an example of feeding once a week for 20 weeks. Divided across that many rounds:

Source: arithmetic on the two tables above. The 20-week figure comes from the advice section of the GOV.UK AHW2 action page, checked 02/08/2026, where it is offered as an example and is not part of the action's requirements. The requirement itself is to spread at least once a week from over the winter until mid-spring, which GOV.UK says is usually early December to late April.

Where that leaves it.

The paragraph that follows is Tilth's own reading of the arithmetic above. It is not scheme guidance and it is not sourced from Defra or the RPA.

On the ready-mixed route the payment covers the seed and leaves £42 a tonne, out of which come your own time and diesel across the feeding rounds, in winter weather. On the route where the cereal fraction comes out of your own store, the same job leaves £272.80, because you are being paid for a tonne that includes 700 kg of grain valued at the price you would have got for it anyway. Which of those two you are looking at depends on your quote, your VAT position, and whether you have suitable grain and a way to mix it.

What you actually have to do

Spread a winter supplementary feeding mix at multiple feeding areas, dividing the total weight as equally as you reasonably can between them, at least once a week from over the winter until mid-spring in the following year, which GOV.UK puts as usually early December to late April.

The mix must contain both cereals, not maize, at no more than 70 per cent of the total by weight, and small non-cereal seeds at at least 30 per cent by weight, with no individual species making up more than 50 per cent of the non-cereal element. The small non-cereal part must contain at least three of: canary seed, linseed, oilseed rape, red millet, sunflowers, white millet.

You must keep a written feeding diary. GOV.UK states that as a requirement of the action, and sets out what it must contain; the detail is in the evidence section below.

If the land is registered as fully organic or in conversion, GOV.UK says to check with your organic control body whether a derogation is needed to use non-organic seed.

Do it in each year of the three-year duration. If the start date makes it too late in the first winter, you must start within 12 months of the action's start date. In the final year, carry on until mid-spring or the action's end date, whichever comes first.

Source: GOV.UK, AHW2 action page, checked 02/08/2026.

What you cannot do

You must not use feed hoppers to supply more than around 10 per cent of the seed mix during each feeding period, and you must not use tailings, meaning the small seeds and chaff taken off the harvested crop, in the mix.

Source: GOV.UK, AHW2 action page, checked 02/08/2026.

Where it can go, and the cap

Land that is firm and free draining, such as farm tracks or hard standing, and close to existing winter bird food, enhanced overwinter stubbles or game cover. The compatibility list follows whichever SFI26 base action you have selected. The only cap stated is the tonnage one: a maximum of one tonne of AHW2 for every two hectares of CAHL2.

Source: GOV.UK, AHW2 action page, checked 02/08/2026.

Things worth watching

This section is Tilth's own reading of where this action is easy to get wrong. It is not scheme guidance, it is not sourced from Defra or the RPA, and none of it adds a requirement beyond what the GOV.UK action page sets out.

The cap is tied to CAHL2, so it is fixed on the day you apply. One tonne per two hectares of winter bird food. If you want more AHW2, the lever is the CAHL2 area, and that is a decision made at application rather than in January.

Three of the six, and none of them over half. The mix rules have two separate arithmetic tests in them: at least three named non-cereal species, and no single species over 50 per cent of the non-cereal element. A bag can pass one and fail the other, and the only way to know is to read the composition.

The 10 per cent hopper limit is a limit on the seed, not on the hoppers. It restricts how much of the mix goes out through hoppers in each feeding period. Reading it as a limit on how many hoppers you have is a different rule, and not the one on the page.

The word is spread, and the places are plural. GOV.UK asks for the total weight divided as equally as possible between multiple feeding areas, on firm free-draining ground. Those two conditions have to hold together, in February, at more than one point on the farm. Convenience is not one of the tests.

Tailings are out. Worth flagging on its own, because tailings are a free source of small seed sitting in the shed and they are specifically excluded from the mix.

The merchant prices above were read inclusive of VAT. Merchant sites can display either basis, and a quote you are given may be on the other one. Worth settling before the figures go into a budget.

Keeping the evidence

Also Tilth's own reading, except where marked. GOV.UK sets the requirements; what follows is a practical suggestion about record keeping.

The diary is not optional and it is not a suggestion. GOV.UK states that you must keep a written feeding diary containing details of the mix used, including the weight of the cereals and the small non-cereal elements and the cost; the feeding dates; the method, spreading or hopper; the amount fed; and the location of the feeding areas. It says it can be kept on paper or electronically, and that you must supply it if asked.

Source: GOV.UK, AHW2 action page, checked 02/08/2026.

What follows is our reading of what that takes in practice. On the once-a-week requirement across an early December to late April period, that is roughly twenty entries a year, made on the day, in the weather, for three years running. A diary written up in April from memory is a different document from one written as you went, and only one of those is what the requirement describes. Whatever you use, the test is whether it is quicker to fill in on the tailgate than to put off.

The part only your own ground can answer

The money on this one turns less on your soil than on your store: whether you have grain of the right sort to make up the cereal fraction, and what you would actually have got for it. That figure sits in your own harvest and sales records rather than in a national average. Tilth keeps those alongside the feeding diary, so the sum and the evidence live in the same place. Request an invite.