One handy tip I picked up from others relatively recently was the idea of swapping your areas of nectar flower mix (EF4) with your area of wild bird seed mix (EF2).
Most legume-heavy nectar flower mixes will not live much longer than 3 years, and many crop combinations grown for wild bird seed mix don't allow for much weed control.
However, if you plan in advance to have equal areas of nectar flower mix and wild bird seed mix, then you ought to be able to just swap the two over, and then deal with the weed and fertility issues that have accumulated.
Great idea, but a colleague pointed out that the nectar flower mix is not identified in the ELS handbook as a rotational option.
Therefore, although NE advisors might support the idea, if RPA inspect the holding and fail to find non-rotational nectar flower mixture in a certain location, could the agreement holder be penalised, ...or at least have some explaining to do?
I checked this with Natural England and they stated that rotating these options is fine as long as the nectar flower mixture (as a non-rotational option) is relocated within the same field.
Richard
Hmm....
Wouldn't it be better to make the nectar flower mix a rotational option? You can choose to keep it in the same location for the duration of the agreement, but equally you'd be able to move it about easily - and to a good location, not just within the confines of a single field - when it needed refreshing.
A native flower-rich margin should outlive even a 10 year HLS agreement, but these legume-rich mixtures are short term.