OFA1Overwinter stubble (organic land)

What it actually is

One thing before anything else, because it changes who this page is for. This action sits in the SFI 2024 expanded offer, and the SFI 2026 offer that followed it does not include it: GOV.UK have taken the action's own page down, so its wording and rate now stand in the SFI 2024 actions print version, its compatibility lists name no SFI26 actions, and it does not appear in GOV.UK's funding finder listing of the current SFI offer. So if you hold OFA1 in an existing agreement, this page is for you for the rest of that agreement's term; if you are planning a new application, this is not an action you can add to it, and the stubble actions in the current offer are AHW6 and AHW7, which organic land can enter like any other. Check your own agreement, and treat your agreement documents as the authority on what you hold.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 179, and GOV.UK's funding finder listing of the current SFI offer, both checked 23/08/2026.

The action itself: on organic or in-conversion arable land, leave the stubble of a cereal other than maize, oilseed rape or linseed standing after harvest through to mid-February, and establish a green overwinter cover crop on the stubble area, such as mustard or fodder radish, so it covers roughly 10 to 50 per cent of the area entered. On the stubble area, the cover crop included: no topping, no grazing, no fertilisers, manures or lime, and no post-harvest cultivation. The land is identified by you as not at risk of erosion or runoff, in writing, and the organic registration is part of eligibility.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 179, checked 23/08/2026.

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 8 hectares is an illustration.

Is it worth it on your ground?

For existing holders only, so briefly: the stubble ahead of an organic spring crop stands anyway, and the prohibitions cost an organic system little it was going to spend. Two things do have a price. The green cover has to be drilled rather than left to arrive, which is seed and a pass in a busy autumn, and the cultivation ban takes away organic weed control's main tool, since a stubble that cannot be worked until mid-February concedes the autumn to whatever is growing. Holders already balanced that when they entered.

Source: the payment rate at the top of this page; requirements from GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 179, 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.

The stubble evidence carried on our AHW6 and AHW7 pages applies here in full, and at its best fit: Conservation Evidence grade leaving overwinter stubbles Likely to be beneficial on 20 studies, scored 90 per cent for effectiveness and 50 per cent for certainty, with the assessed practice, stubbles held to at least February or March, matching this action's mid-February closely. Two findings sit particularly well on organic ground: the studies that found barley stubbles beat wheat for seed-eating birds credited the difference to weed cover and seed, which organic stubbles carry in abundance, and the Devon study's low-input stubbles carried roughly four times the seed of conventionally sprayed ones. An organic stubble is, in effect, the high end of what those studies measured.

Source: Conservation Evidence, action 695, Leave overwinter stubbles, Farmland Conservation synopsis, checked 05/08/2026, including their note that studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. The closing sentence is Tilth's own reading.

What you actually have to do

After harvest of an eligible cereal, which excludes maize, oilseed rape and linseed, leave the stubble and establish a green overwinter cover crop on the stubble area, such as mustard or fodder radish, so it covers roughly 10 to 50 per cent of the area entered. Maintain the stubble and the cover crop with it to around mid-February. Do not top, graze, cultivate, or apply fertilisers, manures or lime on that area, the cover crop included. Hold the written identification that the land is not at risk of erosion or runoff, and keep the organic registration and certificate current, as eligibility depends on them.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 179, 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 green cover band has two ends. Ten to 50 per cent is a range, and an organic stubble in a mild autumn can green past the top of it. The page's wording is the standard; the February cultivation date is the reset.

No cultivation is the organic-specific bite. The stale seedbed work an organic rotation leans on waits until the action's window closes. The spring crop's weed burden inherits the decision.

The certificate is eligibility here, not just virtue. Organic or in-conversion registration is what makes the land eligible at all, so a lapse unwinds more than the organic premium.

Keeping the evidence

Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 179, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.

The part only your own ground can answer

For the farms that hold it, the question is the autumn conceded: what the unworked stubble costs next spring's weed control against what the payment brings. That ledger is in your field records, which is where Tilth keeps it. Request an invite.