CIPM3Companion crop on arable and horticultural land

What it actually is

A crop grown with the crop. GOV.UK's stated aim is that there is a companion crop growing with the main arable or horticultural crop, and the page sets that in the context of an integrated pest management approach, habitat for wildlife, nutrient efficiency and soil protection.

The ground is not taken out. The cash crop still goes in, still gets harvested and still gets sold. GOV.UK names three ways of doing it: trap cropping, inter-cropping and undersowing. It also says the companion crop does not have to be present for the whole growing period, provided the way you manage it can reasonably be expected to achieve the aim.

Source: GOV.UK, CIPM3 action page, checked 02/08/2026.

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 60 hectares is an illustration.

The action is done in each year of the agreement, so the seed cost below recurs annually rather than being spread across three years like the sward actions.

Source: GOV.UK, CIPM3 action page, checked 02/08/2026.

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, because those actions take the ground out of production. This one does not work that way. The cash crop stays, the field is still drilled and still harvested, and the variable costs on it are spent either way. So there is no rotation to compare against and no break-even yield in the usual sense. What you are risking is that the crop yields a little less than it would have done, and the question turns round: how much yield can the payment absorb before it stops covering itself.

Step one: what the seed costs.

Source: Boston Seeds' own listed price and stated sowing rate, looked up 02/08/2026. The site displays prices with an inclusive and exclusive of VAT toggle and £67.00 was read in the inclusive state. The per-hectare figure is arithmetic on those two numbers. GOV.UK specifies no species and no sowing rate for this action and tells you to ask your seed supplier, so this is one merchant's product at one merchant's recommended rate, not a scheme figure.

Step two: what is left, and what it has to cover.

Source: the payment rate at the top of this page less the seed cost in step one, which comes from Tilth's copy of the GOV.UK action catalogue and carries its own last-checked date. Feed wheat at £206.00/t, AHDB Arable Market Report, 27/07/2026, East Anglia delivered, November 2026 delivery. Worked as £21.50 ÷ £206.00 = 0.104 t/ha. The establishment pass is not included; that is your own figure.

Where does that sit? Defra puts the UK wheat yield at 7.2 t/ha in 2025. 104 kg is under one and a half per cent of that, and your own establishment cost has still to come out of the £21.50.

Source: yield, Defra, Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2025, Chapter 7, checked 31/07/2026. The percentage is arithmetic on that figure and the one above.

The pairing that changes the arithmetic. CIPM4, no use of insecticide, is listed as compatible with this action on the same area. The two rates then land on the same hectares while the ground is still growing and selling a cash crop, and the companion seed comes out only once, so the £33.50 above is deducted from the pair rather than from either one. Both rates are shown at the top of their own guides.

Source: compatibility, GOV.UK CIPM3 and CIPM4 action pages, checked 02/08/2026, where each lists the other as compatible on the same area.

Our own reading of the pairing, which adds no requirement beyond what either action page sets out: the two point the same way agronomically, since one is about supporting pest predators and the other is about not killing them. Check the land eligibility of both against your own parcels before assuming they can sit together.

Where that leaves it.

The paragraphs that follow are Tilth's own reading of the arithmetic above. They are not scheme guidance and they are not sourced from Defra or the RPA.

On the merchant price used here, the action pays for its seed and leaves £21.50. What the sum does not capture is the effect of the companion on the cash crop: pest pressure, weed suppression, or nitrogen. If a companion is already part of how you grow the crop, this is a payment for something you were doing anyway and the arithmetic is beside the point. If you would be starting it purely for the payment, £21.50 a hectare after seed is thin, and the case has to rest on what the companion does for the crop.

We are not going to put a figure on that agronomic effect. It varies by crop, by companion, by season and by what your pest and weed pressure actually is, and we have not found a published number we would stand behind on a page about money.

What you actually have to do

Establish a companion crop growing with the main arable or horticultural crop, by trap cropping, inter-cropping or undersowing, and manage it so that it could reasonably be expected to achieve the aim. The companion crop does not have to be present for the whole growing period.

On areas identified in your HEFER record as containing historic or archaeological features, GOV.UK says to avoid deep-rooted companion crop species. An existing companion crop that meets the requirements is eligible.

You must do this action in each year of its three-year duration. If the start date makes it too late in the first year, you must start within 12 months of the action's start date. GOV.UK gives no calendar establishment window and no removal or destruction date.

Source: GOV.UK, CIPM3 action page, checked 02/08/2026.

Where it can go

Agricultural land below the moorland line, on arable land, temporary grassland (TG01), fallow land (FA01) or permanent horticultural crops (TC01). The action is rotational or static. SSSIs and land with historic or archaeological features are eligible with the appropriate consent or HEFER record in place.

Source: GOV.UK, CIPM3 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.

GOV.UK sets no species, no rate and no dates, and that is worth knowing before you plan round it. There is no list of permitted companions, no sowing rate, and no stated point at which the companion has to be established by or removed. The page tells you to ask your seed supplier. CNUM3 and CSAM3, by comparison, write species minimums into their requirements and set establishment windows. That leaves room to fit this action to how you already farm, and it leaves the choices with you.

"Does not have to be present throughout" is not the same as "does not matter". The permission is tied to managing it in a way that can reasonably be expected to achieve the aim. Those two clauses travel together on the page and it is the second one that does the work.

The seed cost is annual, not one-off. This runs in each year of the three, so the £33.50 recurs. On the sward actions the seed is spread across the agreement; here it is not.

A product name is not a compliance statement. Because GOV.UK sets no species list for this action, a mix sold for companion cropping is the merchant's proposition rather than a prescribed one. The judgement about whether what you sowed is a companion crop growing with the main crop, managed so it can reasonably be expected to meet the aim, is yours to make and yours to justify.

Deep-rooted species and HEFER features. If your record identifies anything, the species choice is constrained before you get to the agronomy, and that is a decision made at ordering rather than at drilling.

It only makes sense if it does something for the crop. £21.50 a hectare after seed is a small enough number that one extra establishment pass can absorb it. The action earns its place where the companion is doing something for the crop and the payment is a contribution, rather than the other way round.

Compatible on the page is not the same as compatible on your parcels. GOV.UK lists CIPM4 as compatible with this action on the same area, and the pairing above rests on that. The land eligibility conditions of both actions still have to hold on the ground you have in mind, and that is a check against your own parcels rather than against the list.

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. GOV.UK sets the requirements; what follows is a practical suggestion about record keeping.

The action page asks for evidence of what you have done, with field operations at parcel level and their invoices, and photographs or other documentation, given as examples.

Because GOV.UK sets no species list and no dates, the record is the only thing that shows what you decided to do and when, as well as that you did it. The seed invoice with the species on it, the establishment operation for the companion recorded at parcel level with its method, and photographs of the two crops growing together are the three things that make the case. Photographs are worth taking while both crops are standing, because a companion crop is temporary by nature and by harvest there may be nothing left to look at.

Since the action recurs each year, all of that needs doing three times, and on three different parcels if you move it round the rotation.

The part only your own ground can answer

The £21.50 above is the easy half of the sum. The half that decides it is what the companion does to the yield of the crop it is growing with, and the only place that answer exists is in your own field records, compared against the same field in a year without one. Tilth keeps the companion establishment, the seed invoice and the yield against the same parcel, so the comparison is there to make. Request an invite.