WBD7Remove livestock from grassland during the autumn and winter (SDAs)

What it actually is

WBD6's upland cousin. Inside a Severely Disadvantaged Area, on improved or low input permanent grassland that drains directly into a watercourse and that you have identified in writing as prone to waterlogging, compaction or poaching, you remove all livestock, cattle, sheep, goats, ponies and horses, for the duration of the autumn and winter months, which GOV.UK gives as usually from early October until mid-March. The aim matches its cousin's: grassland by the water carrying no stock through the wet months and minimal waterlogging, compaction and poaching, for the sake of the soil's structure and the water below it.

Source: GOV.UK, WBD7 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 15 hectares is an illustration.

Is it worth it on your ground?

The sum is WBD6's with hill numbers in it. What the action takes is the winter keep of the inbye by the beck, and in an SDA that keep can be the difference between stock wintering at home and stock wintering on a bill somewhere lower. What it gives back, besides the rate, is the field itself in spring: the SDA grassland this action describes is precisely the ground that poaches deepest and recovers slowest, so the repair bill the winter never gets charged for is largest here too. Farms that already send stock away or house through winter collect the rate for their existing shape; farms that outwinter on the entered fields are being paid to stop, and whether the rate covers that is their own feed and haulage arithmetic.

Source: the payment rate at the top of this page; requirements from GOV.UK, WBD7 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 position is the one set out in full on the WBD6 page, and it transfers whole: the nearest graded assessment, reducing grazing intensity on grassland including seasonal removal of livestock, measures wildlife rather than water, and comes back Likely to be ineffective or harmful on 30 studies, scored 30 per cent effectiveness against 70 per cent certainty, a well-measured but mixed record in which 15 of 27 studies found some benefit to birds, plants or invertebrates and others, including a trial excluding autumn and winter grazing specifically, found none. This action's stated aim, soil structure, runoff and flood risk, went unmeasured in all of it, and rests on the same blunt physical mechanism as its cousin: saturated hill soils and hooves are a poor mix, and the watercourse is downhill of the mix.

Source: Conservation Evidence, action 704, Farmland Conservation synopsis, checked 23/08/2026; the aim, GOV.UK, WBD7 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The reading is Tilth's own, and the fuller account is on the WBD6 page.

What you actually have to do

Remove all livestock from the entered land for the duration of the autumn and winter months, usually early October until mid-March on GOV.UK's wording. Hold written evidence that the land is prone to waterlogging, compaction or poaching, which can come from a soil management plan produced for the earlier soil assessment actions, and keep a written record of grazing activity on each parcel showing the removal period was met. Static: the same fields each year.

Source: GOV.UK, WBD7 action page, checked 23/08/2026.

Where it can go

Improved and low input permanent grassland with the PG01 code, inside a Severely Disadvantaged Area below the moorland line, draining directly into a watercourse, identified by you as prone to waterlogging, compaction or poaching. Outside the SDAs the equivalent action is WBD6, which also admits temporary grassland and carries an intensity test this version does not.

Source: GOV.UK, WBD7 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.

The whole season, not a count of months. Where WBD6 asks for five consecutive months, this asks for the autumn and winter as such. The usual wording gives early October to mid-March; the grazing record is what shows the gate stayed shut across it.

Tack sheep are the classic breach. Wintering other people's sheep on the inbye is an SDA tradition and a plain failure of this action on the entered fields. The agreement with the neighbour needs to know about the agreement with the RPA.

Ponies count here too. On hills with fell ponies about, the named list, cattle, sheep, goats, ponies, horses, reaches them. Where the ponies winter is part of compliance.

Mid-March is not turnout day by right. GOV.UK's wording is usually early October until mid-March, and a saturated March field will still poach in April. The action sets the minimum; the aim, minimal poaching, is what the field has to show.

Pair it with the wader ground thoughtfully. The same farm may hold this action by the beck and GRH12 on the rough ground above it. The two calendars differ, stock off here in winter, stocking capped there in spring, and the flock has to fit through both.

Keeping the evidence

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

As with WBD6: the written poaching identification, and the grazing record kept as dates on and off per parcel so the stock-free season shows itself. A photograph of the fields resting in January is cheap corroboration, and on hill ground it is even persuasive scenery.

Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, WBD7 action page, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.

The part only your own ground can answer

What the winter keep on the beck fields is worth against wintering away, and what the spring costs after a poached winter, are hill-farm sums that live in your own records. Tilth keeps the stock movements and the grazing dates this action is judged on, parcel by parcel. Request an invite.