OFM6Organic land management – top fruit

What it actually is

The orchard member of the organic land management family, picking up where the OFC5 conversion ends: commercial top fruit, apples, pears and plums, or bush crops such as gooseberries and redcurrants, on permanent horticultural land registered fully organic. The fruit must be a commercial crop which is not used to produce alcoholic drinks, so cider and perry orchards are outside this action. The requirements are the family's, registration held, standards complied with, certificate valid across the three years, plus the orchard's own: the trees protected from grazing livestock and wildlife damage, and weeds and vegetation managed around the base of establishing trees. Static, as orchards are. GOV.UK's stated aim is the family's: soil health, biodiversity and water quality held through sustained organic management.

Source: GOV.UK, OFM6 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. 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 5 hectares is an illustration.

Is it worth it on your ground?

For the certified organic fruit grower this is the offer's largest per-hectare maintenance payment, on ground already meeting the standards. The scab and codling years remain the business's real risk and the premium its real answer; this rate stands alongside both, and the tree protection requirement is work most orchards do for their own sake.

Source: the payment rate at the top of this page; requirements from GOV.UK, OFM6 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 organic evidence, in full on the OFC3 page, contains the orchard-specific finding worth repeating here as on the conversion page: within the graded Trade-off assessment, 7 studies, 55 per cent effectiveness, 52 per cent certainty, 64 per cent harms, the two trials finding higher soil carbon under organic management were both in orchards. The yield penalty on the harms side is also nowhere sharper than in fruit, and both facts belong to any honest reading of this page.

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

Hold the fully organic registration, comply with the control body's standards throughout, keep the trees protected from grazing livestock and pests such as deer and rabbits so they are not seriously damaged, manage weeds and vegetation around the base of establishing trees, and keep the valid certificate and records for the three years. Static: the same orchard throughout.

Source: GOV.UK, OFM6 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.

Tree protection is a named requirement. Guards, fencing and deer management are compliance here, not just husbandry, and the browsed young tree is the visible failure.

The alcohol line runs through the fruit's destiny, not its variety. The same apples can be dessert fruit or cider fruit; what disqualifies is fruit used to produce alcoholic drinks, and that is eligibility, not paperwork tidiness. Mixed-outlet orchards need the plan to say clearly which fruit is which.

Grazed orchards need the two rules read together. Sheep under the trees is traditional orchard management and also the thing the trees must be protected from. Stock in the orchard is possible where the protection holds; the requirement is the trees' safety, not the stock's absence.

The standards follow the fruit into store. As at conversion, organic rules run through storage and packing, and the certificate covers the chain the fruit actually travels.

Keeping the evidence

Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, OFM6 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.

The part only your own ground can answer

What the organic premium earns over the orchard's cycle of good and bad years is a ledger only your own records keep. Tilth holds the crop records, the stores and the seasons in one place, which is where that ledger lives. Request an invite.