a

“farmer” means a natural or legal person, or a group of natural or legal persons, regardless of the legal status granted to such group and its members by law, whose holding is situated within England, and who exercises an agricultural activity;

b

“agricultural activity” means—

i

production, rearing or growing of agricultural products, including harvesting, milking, breeding animals, and keeping animals for farming purposes,

ii

maintaining an agricultural area in a state which makes it suitable for grazing or cultivation without preparatory action going beyond usual agricultural methods and machineries, based on criteria established by the relevant authority, or

iii

carrying out a minimum activity, defined by the relevant authority, on agricultural areas naturally kept in a state suitable for grazing or cultivation;

c

“agricultural area” means any area taken up by arable land, permanent grassland and permanent pasture, or permanent crops;

d

“holding” means all the units situated in England which are used for agricultural activities and managed by a farmer;

e

“direct payments” means, in relation to England only, direct payments within the meaning of Article 1 of Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 as that regulation applied in relation to England immediately before the end of 2023;

ea

“permanent crops” means non-rotational crops other than permanent grassland and permanent pasture that occupy the land for five years or more and yield repeated harvests, including nurseries and short rotation coppice;

eb

“permanent grassland and permanent pasture” (together referred to as “permanent grassland”) means land used to grow grasses or other herbaceous forage naturally (self-seeded) or through cultivation (sown) and that has not been included in the crop rotation of the holding for five years or more, and, where the relevant authority so decides, that has not been ploughed up for five years or more; it may include other species such as shrubs and/or trees which can be grazed and, where the relevant authority so decides, other species such as shrubs and/or trees which produce animal feed, provided that the grasses and other herbaceous forage remain predominant. The relevant authority may also decide to consider as permanent grassland:

i

land which can be grazed and which forms part of established local practices where grasses and other herbaceous forage are traditionally not predominant in grazing areas; and/or

ii

land which can be grazed where grasses and other herbaceous forage are not predominant or are absent in grazing areas;

ec

“grasses or other herbaceous forage” means all herbaceous plants traditionally found in natural pastures or normally included in mixtures of seeds for pastures or meadows in the United Kingdom, whether or not used for grazing animals;