CAHL1Pollen and nectar flower mix

What it actually is

You sow a flower mix in a block or a strip and keep it flowering from late spring right through the summer. GOV.UK sets that in the context of providing food for pollinators and for the insects that predate crop pests.

The mix has to be grass-free and hold at least six flower species, with no single species making up more than half of it by weight, and it must include at least two from common knapweed, musk mallow, oxeye daisy, wild carrot and yarrow.

It goes in between early spring and early autumn, within twelve months of the action's start date, and it is maintained until the end of the second summer after sowing and then re-established.

Source: GOV.UK, CAHL1 action page, checked 04/08/2026.

Our own way of putting that, which adds no requirement beyond what the GOV.UK action page sets out: the species rules are a specification for what you buy rather than a job you do, so the decision that determines whether the action is met correctly is made on the merchant's order form.

What it pays, and what that comes to

The rate is in the panel at the top of this page. Multiplied out:

Source: arithmetic on the payment rate shown at the top of this page, which comes from Tilth's copy of the GOV.UK action catalogue and carries its own last-checked date. The 4 hectares is an illustration.

Is it worth it on your ground?

Step one: what it costs to put in. Seed, and it is the biggest establishment cost of any action on this site. Three mixes sold for this action, with the merchant's own listed prices and stated sowing rates:

Source: Boston Seeds, own listed prices and stated sowing rates for mixes sold for CAHL1, looked up 04/08/2026. The per hectare column is arithmetic on those two figures. Price your own mix. Cultivation and drilling are your own cost and are not in the table.

Step two: what that comes to a year. A three-year mix sown once and spread across the agreement, against a one-year mix sown every year:

Source: seed costs as above, divided across three years where the mix is a three-year one. The worth column is the payment rate at the top of this page less the seed cost, and is subtraction.

A caution on the three-year mixes. The action requires the mix to be maintained until the end of the second summer after sowing and then re-established. Where a re-establishment falls inside your three years, a three-year mix is bought twice rather than once, and the seed cost roughly doubles. On the standard mix that moves it from £29 to £38 a hectare a year up to £58 to £77, and the worth per hectare per year down to £662 to £681. Which it is depends on when your agreement starts against when you sow, so work it on your own dates rather than ours.

Source: the re-establishment requirement, GOV.UK CAHL1 action page, checked 04/08/2026. The rest is arithmetic on the seed prices above.

Step three: what the ground would otherwise return. Gross margins per hectare for England, non-organic, in the 2023/24 crop year. Variable costs have already been taken off these figures, so there is nothing further to deduct.

Source: Farm Business Survey, Crop Production in England 2023/24, Rural Business Research, England, non-organic, 2023/24 column, checked 02/08/2026. The winter wheat figures come from a sample of 572 farms.

The agreement runs three years, so the comparison has to run three years too, and that ground will not be in wheat for all three of them. Three rotations, worked from the crop figures above:

Source: arithmetic on the crop gross margins in step three, from the Farm Business Survey, Crop Production in England 2023/24, checked 02/08/2026. These three are illustrations. Work your own out from the same crop figures.

Step four: the gap.

Source: the worth column from step two, set against the rotation averages in step three. The remaining figures are subtraction.

Three things to set against those figures. What follows is Tilth's own reading rather than scheme guidance.

The survey reports one winter wheat figure, not first and second wheat separately. A rotation with two wheats in it carries a second wheat at the same gross margin as the first, which is unlikely to be how it turns out on your ground. We have not found a published split to cite, so we have not applied a discount of our own invention. Read the rotation averages as the generous end for the crop.

It is one year, and not a strong one. The same report's 2022/23 column put winter wheat's gross margin at £1,570 a hectare against the £988 above for 2023/24. A three-year decision resting on a single crop year is a shaky thing, and this particular year was the lower of the two.

Establishment is a cost the table does not carry. The seed price is in it. The cultivation pass and the drilling are not, because they depend on your own kit and your own costings, and we are not going to put a number on them for you. They move the gap against the action rather than for it.

Where that leaves it. On ground performing at national rotation averages the crop is ahead, by something in the region of £54 to £187 a hectare a year depending on which mix you buy. That is the narrowest gap of any of the flower and grass actions on this site, and it is narrow enough that the mix you choose matters as much as the field you choose. Buy the cheapest three-year mix that meets the species rules and the gap is close to nothing on average ground and gone entirely on ground that returns below your rotation average. Buy the enhanced mix and sow the smaller area, and you are paying for a better stand out of your own margin.

What you actually have to do

Establish a grass-free seed mix holding at least six flower species, with no single species more than 50 per cent by weight, including at least two of common knapweed, musk mallow, oxeye daisy, wild carrot or yarrow.

Sow between early spring and early autumn, within twelve months of the action's start date. Maintain the block or strip in a way that can reasonably be expected to achieve the action's aim, until the end of the second summer after sowing, and then re-establish it.

Source: GOV.UK, CAHL1 action page, checked 04/08/2026.

What you cannot do on it

No cutting or grazing in a way that prevents the action's aim being achieved. No fertilisers or manures. No pesticides, except herbicides used for weed control. No regular vehicular access, turning or storage.

GOV.UK also advises avoiding cultivation and fertiliser within 2 metres of the centre of a hedgerow, and checking for nesting birds before cutting.

Source: GOV.UK, CAHL1 action page, checked 04/08/2026.

Where it can go, and the cap

Arable land, temporary grassland, fallow land and permanent crops below the moorland line, registered with an eligible land cover and declared with a compatible land use code. You can put it in as a block or as a strip. It is rotational or static, so you can move it in years two and three or leave it where it is.

Source: GOV.UK, CAHL1 action page, checked 04/08/2026.

CAHL1 is one of the ten limited area actions under SFI26. The rule is that the total eligible area you enter into them must not be more than 25 per cent of the total agricultural area of your farm. The other nine are CIPM2, CAHL2, CAHL3, CIGL1, CIGL2, WBD3, AHW7, AHW9 and AHW11.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, section 4.5, 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.

Grass-free is the word that catches people. A great many stewardship mixes on the market carry a grass component, and some of them are sold under headings that mention this action's older codes. The requirement is a grass-free mix. Read the species list on the bag rather than the name on the invoice.

The 50 per cent rule is by weight, and vetch is heavy. No single species may be more than half the mix by weight. Some perennial mixes lean hard on common vetch and sainfoin because they establish well and are cheaper by the kilo, which is precisely why the rule exists. It is a specification the merchant should be able to confirm in writing, and that written confirmation is worth having on the file.

Two of the five named species is a minimum, not a target. Common knapweed, musk mallow, oxeye daisy, wild carrot, yarrow. At least two have to be in there. A mix carrying a token amount of one of them meets nothing.

The re-establishment is inside the agreement, not after it. Maintain until the end of the second summer after sowing, then re-establish. That is a second sowing to plan and pay for, and it is the difference between the top and the bottom line of the seed table above.

No fertiliser and effectively no pesticide. Herbicides for weed control are the only permitted pesticide. On a block that has come out of a field with a thistle or a blackgrass history, that is a three-year commitment to managing a weed problem with a narrower toolbox than you are used to.

Where you turn matters, again. No regular vehicular access, turning or storage. A flower block in a field corner and a place to turn the sprayer want the same ground, so pick the location with the machinery in mind rather than the map.

The 25 per cent cap is shared, not per action. CAHL1 draws on the same allowance as CAHL2, CAHL3 and the rest of the ten. Whatever goes into one is not available to the others, so total them together before the form is filled in rather than deciding them separately.

Keeping the evidence

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

GOV.UK gives field operations at parcel level, invoices detailing the seed mix used, and photographs as its examples of what to keep.

The invoice is doing more work on this action than on any other. It is the only document that shows what was in the bag, which is where every one of the species rules lands. An invoice that says "wildflower mix, 60 kg" proves the weight and nothing else. What is worth asking the merchant for, at the point of ordering rather than a year later, is the species list with the percentages by weight against it.

Tilth keeps the sowing operation against the parcel with the invoice attached to it, so the two are in the same place three years later.

The part only your own ground can answer

The gap above is worked on national averages, and on this action it is small enough that your own ground decides it. A block on your rotation average leaves the crop ahead. A block that quietly returns below it does not, and the seed table is then the whole argument. Which block that is sits in your own yield records rather than in a national survey. Tilth keeps them field by field, alongside the invoice that shows what you sowed. Request an invite.