OFA6Undersown cereal crop (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 OFA6 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. 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 187, 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, an autumn or spring sown cereal other than maize is undersown by late spring with grass or a flower-rich legume ley, in each year of the action. The hedgerow margin rule travels with it, no cultivation, fertiliser or pesticide within 2 metres of a hedge's centre line, and the organic registration is part of eligibility.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 187, 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 15 hectares is an illustration.

Is it worth it on your ground?

For existing holders only, so briefly: undersowing costs the ley seed and a pass, plus a cereal managed slightly in the ley's favour, and many organic rotations were doing it unpaid because the fertility arithmetic demands it. For those farms the action pays for the system's own logic, which is the best kind of scheme money, and holders will already know which of their years the requirement fits.

Source: the payment rate at the top of this page; requirements from GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 187, 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.

Undersowing is one of the better-measured practices on this site. Conservation Evidence grade undersowing spring cereals, with clover for example, as Likely to be beneficial on 18 studies, scored 60 per cent for effectiveness and 43 per cent for certainty. Eleven of fifteen studies from five countries found benefits to some birds, plants, insects, spiders or earthworms, the reported effects including higher densities of singing skylarks and nesting dunnocks, greater arthropod abundance and species richness, and more bumblebees, butterflies, earthworms, ground beetles, spiders and springtails; the remainder found mixed or no effects for some groups. The assessed practice is spring-sown undersowing, and this action also admits autumn cereals undersown by late spring, a small stretch worth noting.

Source: Conservation Evidence, action 136, Undersow spring cereals, with clover for example, Farmland Conservation synopsis, checked 23/08/2026, including their note that studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. The stretch note is Tilth's own reading.

What you actually have to do

In each year of the action, undersow an eligible cereal with grass or a flower-rich legume ley by late spring. Keep cultivation, fertilisers and pesticides out of the 2 metre hedgerow margin. Keep the organic registration and certificate current, and the field records that show the undersowing done.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 187, 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.

Every year means the rotation must supply a cereal every year. On the entered land, an eligible cereal to undersow has to exist annually, which ties the action to the rotation plan more tightly than most.

Late spring is the deadline the season argues with. An autumn cereal thick by April is a hard crop to establish a ley under. The sowing window that actually works on your ground is narrower than the requirement's words.

The ley's job continues after the action's year ends. What the undersown ley becomes, grazing, silage, the next year's fertility, is the system's business, and the action's value compounds only if the ley is used as the rotation intended.

Keeping the evidence

Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 187, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.

The part only your own ground can answer

Which years of your rotation carry the undersowable cereal, and what the ley gives back in fertility and forage, are sums your rotation plan and margins already run. Tilth keeps both where the next agreement decision can see them. Request an invite.