GRH10Supplement: Lenient grazing

What it actually is

A supplement on CLIG3, manage grassland with very low nutrient inputs, entered in the same application. It asks for one thing: through the growing season, graze the field with cattle, or a combination of cattle and sheep, in a way that can reasonably be expected to leave GOV.UK's stated aim standing, a sward with a range of shorter and taller grasses, tussocky in places, as habitat for invertebrates and a food source for birds. The field is not cut for hay or silage. Eligibility carries one siting condition: the parcel needs at least one hedgerow boundary, or scrub cover within about 200 metres, which is where the invertebrates the aim feeds actually overwinter.

Source: GOV.UK, GRH10 action page, checked 23/08/2026.

What it pays, and what that comes to

The rate is in the panel at the top of this page and stacks on the base action's payment on the same hectares. Multiplied out, supplement alone:

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 15 hectares is an illustration; the base action's payment is on the CLIG3 page.

Is it worth it on your ground?

This is one of the smallest rates on the site, and it buys a constraint with two edges. The no-cutting rule removes the field from the forage rotation outright, which on a grazing-led farm costs nothing and on a cutting farm costs the field's silage. The lenient stocking itself means fewer grazing days per hectare, and the value of the days given up is your stocking sum, not ours. Where the field was already a lightly grazed cattle pasture with a hedge round it, the supplement is close to free money on top of the base action; where it forces a system change, the rate will not carry the change on its own. The base action's own case does the heavy lifting either way.

Source: the payment rate at the top of this page; requirements from GOV.UK, GRH10 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The judgements are Tilth's own reading rather than scheme guidance.

Does it work, and what makes it work better

This section is what we have found in published sources about the practice this action pays for. It is not scheme guidance, it is not Defra's or the RPA's view, and it adds no requirement beyond what the GOV.UK action page sets out. We have named every source and given the date we checked it. What it means for your ground is your decision.

The practice, gentler grazing on permanent grassland, sits inside the evidence already carried on the CLIG3 page, so briefly here. Conservation Evidence grade reduced management intensity on permanent grasslands, the package of lower inputs and gentler grazing together, as Likely to be beneficial on 38 studies, with an effectiveness score of 100 per cent against a certainty of 60, the panel's way of saying the reported effects ran strongly the right way on moderate proof. The grazing side isolated and judged on birds alone scores lower: Likely to be beneficial on 12 studies, 46 per cent effectiveness, 55 per cent certainty, 0 harms. The pattern across both is that reduced intensity helps most reliably as a package, which is exactly the shape of this supplement riding on its base action rather than standing alone.

Source: Conservation Evidence, action 69, Farmland Conservation synopsis, and action 220, Bird Conservation synopsis, both checked 23/08/2026; the full account is on our CLIG3 page. Cite as Dicks et al. (2020), Farmland Conservation, pages 283 to 321, and Williams et al. (2020), Bird Conservation, pages 137 to 281, both in What Works in Conservation 2020, Open Book Publishers. The package observation is Tilth's own reading.

What you actually have to do

Graze the entered land during the growing season with cattle, or cattle and sheep together, managed so a range of shorter and taller grasses stands across the sward. Do not cut the area for hay or silage. Meet the siting condition, a hedgerow boundary or scrub within about 200 metres, and the base action's own requirements throughout.

Source: GOV.UK, GRH10 action page, checked 23/08/2026.

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.

Sheep alone do not qualify. Cattle, or cattle with sheep. A sheep-only holding cannot meet the grazing requirement as written, however lenient the stocking, because the sward the aim describes is one sheep grazing does not build.

The varied sward is the test, not a stocking number. No stocking rate is given; the requirement is the outcome, shorter and taller grass together. That is more freedom and less certainty than a number, and the photograph of the sward is what shows it was met.

No cutting means no topping into a hay crop either. The prohibition is on cutting for hay or silage. What that leaves possible by way of sward management is worth reading carefully on the page before the topper goes anywhere near it.

Check the 200 metres before assuming. The hedge-or-scrub condition is about where the parcel sits, not how it is managed, and an open field in the middle of a silage block may simply not qualify. The map answers it in a minute.

Keeping the evidence

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

GOV.UK asks for stocking records showing the grazing, field operations with invoices, and photographs. The stocking record carries the cattle requirement; the photographs carry the sward. The same few viewpoints through the season, showing tussock and lawn together, are the cheapest proof this supplement can have.

Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, GRH10 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.

The part only your own ground can answer

What a lenient summer costs your stocking plan, and whether the field was half way to this sward already, are questions your grazing records answer better than any page. Tilth keeps the stock movements, the diary and the sward photographs against the field they belong to. Request an invite.