WBD6Remove livestock from intensive grassland during the autumn and winter (outside SDAs)

What it actually is

A wet-months rule for hard-worked grass beside water. The land is intensive grassland, temporary or improved permanent, that drains directly into a watercourse, typically receives at least 100 kg of nitrogen per hectare a year, which is GOV.UK's wording, and that you have identified, in writing, as prone to waterlogging, compaction or poaching. The requirement is single and strict: remove all livestock, cattle, sheep, goats, ponies and horses alike, for at least 5 consecutive months during the autumn and winter, which GOV.UK gives as usually between October and March. The stated aim is that grassland by the watercourse carries no stock through the wet months and minimal waterlogging, compaction and poaching, so its soil structure holds, runoff and diffuse pollution fall, and the water downstream floods less.

Source: GOV.UK, WBD6 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 10 hectares is an illustration.

Is it worth it on your ground?

Step one: what the winter grazing was worth. The cost of this action is five months of keep on the entered fields, and it lands very differently by system. A farm that already houses everything by October gives up nothing but the odd back-end bite; a farm built on outwintering gives up the thing the system saves money by, and the difference lands in the straw and silage bill of housing stock earlier or the rent of grazing elsewhere.

Step two: what the field was costing. Poached, compacted grass by a watercourse repays its winter use with a slow spring, remedial harrowing, and a sward that needs patching. Those costs rarely get written against the winter grazing that caused them, and on the fields this action describes they are real. The written identification the action requires is, in effect, you putting a price on that damage at last.

Step three: where that leaves it. For farms already housing through winter, this is close to payment for current practice on their wettest fields. For outwintering systems the sum is the housing cost against the rate above plus the spring the field gets back, and only your own figures settle it.

Source: the payment rate at the top of this page; requirements from GOV.UK, WBD6 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. We have named every source and given the date we checked it. What it means for your ground is your decision.

The nearest graded assessment measures the wrong outcome for this action, and saying so plainly matters more here than anywhere. Conservation Evidence assess reducing grazing intensity on grassland, including seasonal removal of livestock, for wildlife, and the grade is poor: Likely to be ineffective or harmful, on 30 studies, scored 30 per cent for effectiveness against 70 per cent for certainty, which is the panel saying a well-measured record came back mixed. Within it, 15 of 27 individual studies from four countries found benefits to birds, plants or invertebrates, including one review's finding that removing autumn grazing after a silage cut increased the winter abundance of seed-eating birds, while others, including a randomised controlled trial that excluded grazing precisely in autumn and winter, found no benefit to plants or invertebrates.

Source: Conservation Evidence, action 704, Reduce grazing intensity on grassland (including seasonal removal of livestock), Farmland Conservation synopsis, checked 23/08/2026.

But WBD6 does not claim to be a wildlife action. Its stated aim is soil structure, runoff, diffuse pollution and flood risk, and none of the studies above measured those. The mechanism it relies on is the bluntly physical one every wet field demonstrates annually: hooves on saturated soil compact and poach it, and compacted, poached soil beside a watercourse sheds dirty water into it. We have found no graded assessment of that pathway in the sources this site uses, and it is not the kind of claim that is in serious dispute. As on our arable reversion page, the honest position is that the wildlife case is weak and beside the point, and the water case is the point and unmeasured here.

Source: the aim, GOV.UK, WBD6 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The reading is Tilth's own.

What you actually have to do

Remove all livestock from the entered land for at least 5 consecutive months during the autumn and winter, usually within October to March on GOV.UK's wording. Hold the written evidence that the land is prone to waterlogging, compaction or poaching, which can come from an existing soil management plan, and keep a written record of grazing activity on each parcel that shows the removal period was met, along with your nitrogen application records. Static: the same fields each year.

Source: GOV.UK, WBD6 action page, checked 23/08/2026.

Where it can go

Temporary grassland (TG01) or improved and low input permanent grassland (PG01), outside Severely Disadvantaged Areas, draining directly into a watercourse, typically receiving at least 100 kg of nitrogen per hectare per year, which is GOV.UK's wording and which your input records have to show, and identified by you as prone to waterlogging, compaction or poaching. Inside an SDA the equivalent action is WBD7.

Source: GOV.UK, WBD6 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.

Consecutive is the word that convicts. Five months in a row, not five months in total. One bunch of ewes through the gate in December restarts nothing, it simply breaks the period, and the grazing record you are required to keep is what shows it.

All livestock includes the horses. Cattle, sheep, goats, ponies and horses are all named. The pony paddock arrangement on the field by the brook is inside the rule, whoever owns the pony.

The 100 kg nitrogen line defines intensive. This action is for hard-fed grass; the nitrogen records you must keep are also the eligibility evidence. A low-input field belongs in other actions, not this one.

Drains directly into a watercourse is a map test. Direct drainage is what puts the field in scope. Walk the falls or read the drainage plan; the field that ponds but drains inward is a different case from the one that sheds to the brook.

Housing five months has its own arithmetic. Straw, silage, slurry storage and the shed space itself. The action's rate is fixed; those costs move with your system and the year, and the sum wants doing before entry, not in a wet November.

Keeping the evidence

Also Tilth's own reading. GOV.UK sets the requirements; what follows is a practical suggestion about record keeping.

Three records, all named by the page: the written waterlogging and poaching identification, the nitrogen applications, and the grazing record showing the stock-free months. The grazing record does the heavy lifting, so keep it as dates on and off per parcel through the year, and let the five clean months show themselves. Photographs of the fields resting through winter finish the file.

Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, WBD6 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.

The part only your own ground can answer

Which fields poach, what the winter keep on them is truly worth, and what housing earlier costs your system: all answered from your own grazing and feed records, not from a payment rate. Tilth keeps the stock movements and the nitrogen record this action runs on, parcel by parcel, dates and all. Request an invite.