GRH7Supplement: Haymaking

What it actually is

A supplement, not a standalone action: it goes on land entered into CLIG3, manage grassland with very low nutrient inputs, in the same application, and it turns that field into a managed hay meadow. The requirements: no grazing or cutting for a continuous spell of at least 8 weeks during spring and summer before the hay is taken; the harvest no earlier than late June, or mid-July inside a severely disadvantaged area; an uncut margin left around at least half the edge of the entered area when you cut, as shelter for invertebrates; the cut crop field-dried and turned at least once; the dried crop carried off, wrapped or unwrapped; and the aftermath managed, by grazing or a second cut, to keep the base action's aim. GOV.UK's stated aim is conserving the plants of traditionally managed hay meadows, pollen and nectar for pollinators, water quality, and the traditional landscape character hay-making carries.

Source: GOV.UK, GRH7 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 top of the base action's own 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 6 hectares is an illustration; the base action's payment is on the CLIG3 page.

Is it worth it on your ground?

Step one: the field is already committed. The supplement only exists on CLIG3 ground, which has already accepted very low nutrient inputs and that action's cap on fertility. The marginal question is what the haymaking pattern adds and costs on top.

Step two: what it changes. The closed window moves your cut from silage time to hay time, which is a feed-value decision as much as a calendar one: grass cut from late June onwards is a bulkier, stemmier, lower-protein crop than a May silage cut, and the field-drying requirement trades the forager's certainty for the weather's. Against that, hay is a sellable commodity off the field, horse and smallholder demand is real in most counties, and the aftermath still grazes. What the later, rougher crop is worth against what your silage system loses is your own forage budget's question.

Step three: where that leaves it. On a field already in the base action, the supplement pays for a discipline many low-input meadows were close to keeping anyway. The cost that is easy to underprice is risk: a wet fortnight in July with hay flat in the field is the scenario the payment has to cover, and some years it will not.

Source: the payment rate at the top of this page; requirements from GOV.UK, GRH7 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 behind the closed window, delaying the mowing date, is assessed twice in the sources this site uses, and both land in the same category.

The graded assessments. Conservation Evidence, based at the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, has independent subject experts score each assessed action. Delaying mowing or first grazing date on pasture or grassland, in the Farmland Conservation synopsis, is in the category Likely to be beneficial, on 15 studies, scored 60 per cent for effectiveness and 45 per cent for certainty. Delay haying or mowing, in the Bird Conservation synopsis, is also Likely to be beneficial, on 5 studies, scored 45 per cent for effectiveness, 52 per cent for certainty and 0 for harms.

Source: Conservation Evidence, action 131, Farmland Conservation synopsis, and action 223, Bird Conservation synopsis, both checked 23/08/2026.

What the studies found, both ways. On the favourable side: eight studies from the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK found delayed mowing or grazing benefited some or all of the plants, invertebrates or birds studied, with higher plant species richness, more insect species and individuals visiting flowers, greater abundance of some spiders and ground beetles, increased breeding wader densities and increased skylark productivity among the reported effects; three reviews found the UK corncrake population increased after measures including delayed mowing were introduced; and an American controlled study found nest destruction by machinery lower, and late-season nesting higher, in late-cut fields. On the other side: six studies from five countries found no clear or mixed effects for some groups, and a Dutch paired-sites study found no evidence that waders and other birds were more abundant in delayed-mowing fields than controls, with a second Dutch study finding the delayed fields already held more birds before the scheme began.

Source: Conservation Evidence, actions 131 and 223, key messages, checked 23/08/2026.

Conservation Evidence say themselves that studies are not directly comparable or of equal value, and that study size, design, reported metrics and relevance to your own situation matter more than "simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation". None of the studies measured GRH7 itself, and the mechanical findings, machinery destroying fewer nests when the cut comes later, are the part that transfers most literally.

Source: the note under key messages on the action pages cited above, checked 23/08/2026. The closing sentence is Tilth's own reading.

What you actually have to do

Hold the sward ungrazed and uncut for a continuous period of at least 8 weeks in spring and summer before harvest. Cut no earlier than late June outside severely disadvantaged areas, or mid-July within them. Leave an uncut margin around at least half the perimeter of each entered parcel when you harvest. Field-dry the cut crop, turning it at least once, then carry it off, wrapped or unwrapped. Manage the aftermath by grazing or a second cut in a way that achieves the base action's aim. Rotational or static, moving with the base action or staying put.

Source: GOV.UK, GRH7 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.

The 8 weeks are continuous, and yours to place. The requirement is a single unbroken closed spell before the cut, not 8 weeks in total. Where it starts is your choice, and it fixes your earliest cutting date more precisely than the late June line does, so count backwards from the day you actually expect to mow.

Haylage counts only if it dried in the field first. The crop must field-dry with at least one turning before it is removed, wrapped or not. Cutting and foraging it green the way silage goes is the specific thing this supplement exists to not pay for.

The uncut margin is at harvest, around half the edge. It is easy to mow a tidy full circuit out of habit. Half the perimeter stays standing, and which half is worth deciding before the mower starts rather than from the seat.

The weather risk is structural. A hay cut no earlier than late June, field-dried, in an English summer, will some years cost you the crop's quality entirely. The supplement's rate is the standing compensation for that; no individual bad year brings more.

It rides on CLIG3, with one substitution. Same hectares, same application, and CLIG3's own rules, the nutrient limits above all, keep applying underneath. The one that does not: GOV.UK says this supplement's minimum 8 week period replaces CLIG3's minimum 7 week period on the area entered into the supplement, so there is one closed spell to plan, not two.

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 field operations with invoices, grazing records and photographs. The dates carry this one: when the closed window began, when the cut came, when it was turned, when it was carried, each a diary line. Photographs of the standing crop in flower, the uncut margin after harvest, and the bales leaving cover the rest.

Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, GRH7 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.

The part only your own ground can answer

Whether your system can spare a field from the silage rotation, and what late hay is worth in your barn or your local market against what the forager would have taken, is a forage budget only you hold. The dates the supplement turns on, window opened, cut, turned, carried, are exactly the kind of thing a field diary keeps without being asked twice. Tilth is that diary. Request an invite.