OFC1Organic conversion – improved permanent grassland

What it actually is

The grassland member of the organic conversion family, whose shared machinery is set out in full on the OFC3 page: land registered as in conversion with a Defra-licensed organic control body, an approved conversion plan followed, organic standards complied with from the start of the conversion period to the action's end date, and conversion completed, with the land registered fully organic, before the action ends. This version covers improved and semi-improved permanent grassland, is applied for a year at a time across up to 2 consecutive years, and is static. Land previously registered organic, or previously paid conversion aid, is not eligible. GOV.UK's stated aim is the conversion itself: more registered organic land, managed organically from here on.

Source: GOV.UK, OFC1 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, paid during conversion. 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.

Is it worth it on your ground?

The judgement is the family's, made in full on the OFC3 page: no rate decides an organic conversion, and the real sum is your conversion-period margin gap against your organic market. Grassland's own version of that gap is mostly the nitrogen the sward loses and the stock's slower finishing under organic standards, against conversion-period milk or meat still sold at conventional prices. This action is a contribution to those two years, not a match for them, and the decision lives in your buyer conversations, not on this page.

Source: the payment rate at the top of this page; requirements from GOV.UK, OFC1 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.

The evidence on converting to organic farming is carried in full on the OFC3 page, and in brief: the one graded assessment, in the Enhancing Soil Fertility synopsis, places it in the category Trade-off between benefit and harms on 7 studies, scored 55 per cent effectiveness, 52 per cent certainty and 64 per cent harms, more and busier soil life and higher orchard soil carbon on the benefit side, lower yields and soil nutrients on the harms side. The ungraded catalogues found organic farms carried more butterflies and moths in most comparisons, and more natural enemies of pests in most, with plenty of variation. Nothing measured this action or English grassland conversion specifically.

Source: Conservation Evidence, action 895, Enhancing Soil Fertility synopsis, checked 23/08/2026. The fuller account is on the OFC3 page.

What you actually have to do

Register the land as in conversion, hold and follow the approved conversion plan for the land and its associated livestock, comply with organic standards throughout, and complete conversion with the land registered fully organic before the action's end date. Keep the plan, a valid organic certificate covering the duration, and records of the grassland's classification. Static: the same land each year.

Source: GOV.UK, OFC1 action page, checked 23/08/2026.

Where it can go

Improved permanent grassland, or semi-improved low input permanent grassland, both under PG01, below the moorland line, registered as in conversion. The entry is the total available area in a land parcel, at the point of application, so a parcel converts whole rather than in part. SSSIs need Natural England's consent before the Rural Payments Agency offers you an SFI26 agreement; historic features need an SFI HEFER before you do the action.

Source: GOV.UK, OFC1 action page, checked 24/08/2026.

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 livestock convert with the land. The plan the action requires you to follow covers the associated livestock too, and grassland conversion without thinking through the herd's organic feed, bedding and veterinary rules is half a plan.

Improved versus unimproved decides the page. This action is for improved and semi-improved swards; the rougher grassland belongs in OFC2 at its own rate. The control body's classification of each field settles it, and the record of that classification is required evidence.

Two applications, one conversion, no gaps. The action is annual across consecutive years, and the second year's application is as easy to miss as any deadline mid-busy-season.

The one-way door. Previously organic land cannot re-enter. Rented ground especially needs its history checked before the plan is signed.

Keeping the evidence

Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, OFC1 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.

The part only your own ground can answer

What the conversion years will cost this farm's grassland is written nowhere but your own margins, before and during. Tilth keeps them field by field, which is how you will know afterwards what the bridge really cost and whether the far bank paid. Request an invite.