Farmers will need to check their own Countryside Stewardship Agreements as this will detail the claim deadlines applicable to them, but generally speaking:

• For CS Mid Tier agreements with a January 2017 start date, capital works should have been completed and paid for by 31st December 2018, and the claim needs to be submitted 3 months later (by 31st March 2019)
• For CS Mid Tier Water Capital Grants (2 year duration) with a January 2017 start date, the same capital works completion and claim deadlines apply as shown above.

All CS Capital & Revenue Claims can be submitted online via the Rural Payments Online system. Some very helpful step-by-step guidance is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/countryside-stewardship-how-to-submit-claims-online.

A common pitfall - farmers need to check the correct permissions are set up on Rural Payments at the beginning, to ensure they are authorised to submit CS claims - this is all explained in the guidance.

Advance warning:

Farmers with Mid Tier (5 year) and Higher Tier Agreements also need to submit their annual Countryside Stewardship Revenue Payment Claim by 15th May 2019 - also via Rural Payments Online. Farmers must check whether any supporting information is also required by the claim deadline. Again, helpful step-by-step guidance is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/countryside-stewardship-how-to-submit-claims-online.

Farmers should have received a reminder about CS Capital and Revenue Claims from Natural England / RPA; however, these are often sent as a message to the Rural Payments Online system, which obviously relies on farmers checking this regularly!

Farmers with CS Hedgerow & Boundary Grant Agreements should also check the deadlines for completion of capital works and claim deadlines listed in their Agreement, to ensure these are not missed - these usually fall in the summer.