Sheughs and Cross Compliance
Brian Finch, Countryside Management Branch, DARD
Farmers in receipt of the Single Farm Payment are required to comply with a set of standards known as Cross Compliance.
As part of Cross Compliance farmers must maintain their land in Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC).
Field boundaries cannot be removed without DARD permission including infilling and/or laying drainage pipes in open drains or sheughs. Sheugh maintenance is permitted and beneficial.
Sheughs should be seen not only as drainage channels but also as a valuable landscape feature and wildlife habitat. In order to retain the wildlife value when cleaning consider the following advice:
- Clean every three to four years between autumn and late winter.
- If there is an extensive sheugh system spread the work over a number of seasons.
- Leave as much vegetation along one side of the sheugh as possible to help re-colonise the other side after cleaning.
- Re-profiling the ditch bank to create a shallower slope benefits wetland plants and invertebrates.
- Deepen short sections to allow open water to remain longer in the summer.
Further information on sheugh management is available from Countryside management Branch at your local DARD office.