Hedgerows & Field Boundaries
Hedgerows: For Advisers & Agents
What Hedgerows changes for agronomists, agents, vets and consultants.
Advisers need scoped access, defensible records and a way to work across a client base without re-keying. Hedgerows are among the most reliably funded actions in every UK scheme and among the most poorly recorded. This module measures and classifies every metre of boundary, plans a cutting rotation that satisfies both the regulatory cutting ban and the scheme action requirements, and captures the evidence that turns hedgerow management into scheme income and biodiversity units.
In their words
What the job actually looks like
These are not marketing personas. Each one is a distinct job with a distinct constraint, and the module is designed so that solving one does not create work for the others.
BNG assessor
Baseline and uplift assessment
Needs condition-scored hedgerow length for the metric.
- Survey and classify all boundaries
- Measure and verify lengths
- Assess condition
- Plan the cutting and management rotation
Scheme adviser
Agreement preparation
Needs accurate boundary measurement to build a claim on.
- Measure and verify lengths
- Assess condition
- Plan the cutting and management rotation
- Map to scheme actions and check caps
Contractor
Hedge cutting and laying
Needs clear, mapped instruction and completion evidence.
- Assess condition
- Plan the cutting and management rotation
- Map to scheme actions and check caps
- Instruct and carry out the work
End to end
How Hedgerows runs, start to finish
The module is modelled as a state machine, so at any point the business knows exactly which stage every record is at and what has to happen next.
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1
Survey and classify all boundaries
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Measure and verify lengths
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Assess condition
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Plan the cutting and management rotation
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Map to scheme actions and check caps
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Instruct and carry out the work
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Capture evidence at fixed points
Results feed the whole-farm view, so the effect of this stage is visible against the rest of the business.
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8
Claim and reconcile
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
Capabilities
What Hedgerows does
Every capability below is built on the same underlying record, so entering something once is enough for it to appear wherever it is needed.
Record and plan
- Boundary survey with hedgerow, wall, fence and ditch classification
- Metre-accurate measurement from mapping with field verification
- Hedgerow condition assessment against the recognised structural criteria
Operate and monitor
- Cutting rotation planner respecting the statutory ban and scheme requirements
- Hedgerow tree identification, tagging and management
- Gapping up, laying and coppicing programme with cost modelling
Comply and evidence
- Scheme action mapping across all four nations with rate and cap enforcement
- Biodiversity metric contribution from hedgerow condition and length
- Dry stone wall condition and rebuild programme management
Analyse and improve
- Historic and archaeological boundary feature protection
- Photographic evidence at fixed points with season-matched comparison
- Contractor instruction and completion verification
Payment schedule
What is due, and when it lands
Farm support arrives in instalments from several bodies on different calendars. Set against your own overdraft, the question is not how much but when — so the ledger is ordered by date, not by scheme.
| When | Payment | From | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June | Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 | Defra / Rural Payments Agency | — | Expected |
| March | Countryside Stewardship | Defra / Natural England / Rural Payments Agency | — | Agreed |
| June | Environmental Land Management Capital Grants | Defra / Rural Payments Agency | — | Eligible |
| May | Sustainable Farming Scheme | Welsh Government / Rural Payments Wales | — | Eligible |
| March | Environmental Farming Scheme | DAERA | — | Eligible |
| December | Farming Equipment and Technology Fund | Defra / Rural Payments Agency | — | Eligible |
- — Agreed and scheduled
- — Claimed, awaiting payment
- — Eligible, unclaimed
What the statuses mean
- Agreed
- Under a signed agreement with a scheduled payment date.
- Expected
- Claimed and assessed; payment date per the published standard.
- Eligible
- Your holding appears to qualify but nothing is claimed yet.
Worked example
How a business like yours would use Hedgerows
The problem: Needs to know exactly how many metres are claimable and under which action.
What they do
- Survey and classify all boundaries
- Measure and verify lengths
- Assess condition
- Plan the cutting and management rotation
What changes
- Metres surveyed and classified
- Metres under scheme management
- Condition score improvement
This is an illustrative worked example built from the module design, not a customer reference. Named case studies are published only with the business's written consent.
What we are hearing
The problems people describe to us
These are composite statements drawn from user research conversations, not attributed customer quotes. We publish named references only with written consent.
I am not short of software. I am short of one place where the same field means the same thing in all of it.
The scheme closed on a Tuesday evening. I had the application half built. Nobody told me the budget was nearly gone.
We farm on both sides of the border. Everything takes twice as long and I still cannot see the whole position on one screen.
Audit week costs me three days. Every single record they ask for is already written down somewhere on this farm.
Measurement
How you will know it is working
The module reports against these measures from the day it is switched on, so the value is demonstrable rather than assumed.
- 01Metres surveyed and classified
- 02Metres under scheme management
- 03Condition score improvement
- 04Income per kilometre
- 05Cutting ban compliance rate
Free tool
Run the numbers for your own holding
Enter your figures and get an answer you can act on, with the method shown so you can check it. Save the result to your account or take it away as a PDF.