WBD5Manage intensive grassland adjacent to a watercourse

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. Its work is carried in the current offer by a pair of shorter actions, WBD4's five grass sward for erosion-prone ground and WBD6's winter livestock removal beside watercourses. So if you hold WBD5 in an existing agreement, this page is for you for the rest of that agreement's term, and note the term: this action runs 5 years, not the scheme's usual three. 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 121, and GOV.UK's funding finder listing of the current SFI offer, both checked 23/08/2026.

The action itself: sloping intensive grassland draining directly into a watercourse, historically fed above 200 kg of nitrogen per hectare a year, is re-established with a seed mix of at least 5 grass species and held as an intact sward with minimal bare ground all year. The season's management is spring and summer grazing with a late summer cut, cuttings removed; the wet months are protected, no grazing from early October to mid-March, no fertilisers or manures from mid-August through January, and across the year livestock manure nitrogen capped below 100 kg per hectare with fertiliser nitrogen below 50. No pesticides beyond targeted herbicides, no supplementary feed beyond mineral blocks. GOV.UK's stated aim is the dense, diverse sward doing the water's work: less compaction, less runoff, less diffuse pollution, less flood.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 121, 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 the term is five years:

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 10 hectares is an illustration.

Is it worth it on your ground?

For existing holders only, so briefly: the entry costs were paid at establishment, and the standing cost is the one the WBD6 page prices in full, five wet months of keep found elsewhere every year, plus the nitrogen caps holding the sward's output below what 200 kg ground used to give. Holders weighed that against the rate at entry; the halfway point of a five year term is a reasonable moment to check the sums still hold, and the exit paragraph below is for the far end.

Source: the payment rate at the top of this page; requirements from GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 121, 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 position is the one our WBD4 and WBD6 pages set out in full, since this action is their union. On the wildlife shelf: reduced grazing intensity including seasonal removal grades Likely to be ineffective or harmful on 30 studies, 30 per cent effectiveness against 70 per cent certainty, a well-measured mixed record; the arable reversion assessments score plain sown grass at zero for wildlife effectiveness. On the shelf this action actually claims, water, soil structure and flood risk, the graded record is silent, and the case rests on the blunt physics both sibling pages describe: roots holding sloping soil, cover slowing water, hooves kept off saturated ground, nitrogen held back from the months that leach. The honest summary is unchanged: weak wildlife evidence beside the point, the water case unmeasured but not seriously disputed.

Source: Conservation Evidence, action 704, Farmland Conservation synopsis, checked 23/08/2026; the fuller accounts on our WBD4 and WBD6 pages. The reading is Tilth's own.

What you actually have to do

Hold the five grass species sward intact year round with minimal bare ground, re-establishing where needed. Graze in spring and summer, cut in late summer and remove the cuttings. Keep stock off from early October to mid-March. Apply no fertilisers or manures from mid-August through January, and stay under the annual caps, livestock manure nitrogen below 100 kg per hectare, fertiliser nitrogen below 50. No pesticides beyond targeted herbicides, no supplementary feed beyond mineral blocks. Static, for the full five years.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 121, 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.

Five years outlasts attention. The scheme's usual rhythm is three; this term runs longer than the habits formed around it. The calendars, grazing off in October, nitrogen off in mid-August, need to survive staff changes and busy autumns twice over.

Two nitrogen limits, one field. The closed window and the annual caps run together, and the caps are low for ground that historically took four times as much. The fertiliser plan for these fields is a separate document from the farm's, or it will be breached by habit.

The exit lands on the current offer's doorstep. When the five years end, the field is a five species sward beside a watercourse with a winter-rest habit, which is very nearly WBD4 plus WBD6 in the current offer. Holders approaching their end date are, in effect, holding the successor actions' entry requirements already met.

Keeping the evidence

Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 121, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.

The part only your own ground can answer

What the empty winters and capped nitrogen actually cost your system, and what the field beside the water is worth as the sward it has become, are five year sums only your own records run. Tilth keeps them running, parcel by parcel, which is also how the successor-action decision at the far end gets made on numbers rather than nostalgia. Request an invite.