Catch-crop payment

• You must farm the land yourself, whether owned, rented or used under an agreement. You automatically meet the active-farmer test if your SAM application contains more than 36 hectares or more than 50 livestock units, or if your direct payments last year were at most EUR 5,000. If you received no direct payments last year, you qualify automatically when this year’s expected direct payments are at most EUR 5,000. Otherwise, the county board can assess evidence such as business costs or income. Livestock units weight animals by species and age: for example, cattle older than two years count as 1 unit and cattle aged six months to two years as 0.6 units. The direct payments counted are basic income support (including redistribution), young-farmer and cattle support, plus payments for organic production, precision-farming planning, catch crops, intermediate crops, spring tillage, flowering arable land and field margins, and ley cultivation.
• Your SAM application normally needs at least 4 hectares of agricultural land; each claimed parcel must be at least 0.1 hectares. If you were below 4 hectares on 9 April, you had until 4 May to reach it, with a 1% reduction per working day. Below 4 hectares, you may still qualify if you receive cattle support and your combined basic income, cattle, young-farmer, precision-farming planning, carbon-storage and reduced-nitrogen-leakage, organic-production, ley and flowering-field payments reach EUR 100.
• Permanent crops are excluded. In 2026 the main crop cannot be mowing, seed or grazing ley, vegetated fallow or strawberries; parcels growing maize that year are also excluded.
• Use an eligible catch crop and establish it well enough to take up nitrogen after harvest. Grass or grass–legume mixtures must be undersown in the main crop, with legumes at most 15% of seed weight, and cannot be undersown in potatoes, root crops or vegetables. White mustard, oilseed radish (oljerättika) and radish (rättika) may be sown in the main crop or immediately after harvest. Winter rye and Westerwolds ryegrass must be sown promptly after potatoes, root crops or vegetables and are not allowed after other main crops.
• Do not terminate grass, grass–legume mixtures, white mustard, oilseed radish or radish before 10 October 2026, or 20 October in Blekinge, Skåne and Halland. Winter rye and Westerwolds ryegrass must remain until 1 January 2027. These dates cover chemical and mechanical termination; if you also claim spring-tillage payment, chemical termination must wait until 1 January 2027.
• Before the permitted termination date, do not harvest, graze or otherwise use the catch crop for production, fertilise after the main-crop harvest, or install field drainage. Topping and liming are allowed. The catch crop cannot become the 2027 main crop. Follow the land, animal and employer rules attached to agricultural support. Catch-crop and spring-tillage payments can be combined on the same land.
• Meet the separate annual land-maintenance requirement: by 31 October, cultivation, grazing, topping, cutting or tillage must be evident across the parcel. Keep arable land from becoming waterlogged. The catch-crop restrictions above still govern when grazing, harvest or termination is allowed.

Status

geschlossen

Antragsschluss

4. Mai 2026

Beschränkungen dieser Antragsrunde

• The ordinary deadline was 9 April 2026. Later applications lost 1% per working day; applications after 4 May receive no payment.

Applications for 2026 are closed. Apply through SAM Internet when an application window is available; first-time applicants need a customer number from their county board. The 2026 ordinary deadline was 9 April, with a 1% reduction for each working day late and no payment for applications after 4 May.

Keep an existing application accurate. Until 31 October you can change parcel boundaries and crops without increasing the claimed area, or withdraw all or part of the application. Withdraw affected parcels if the catch crop was not sown, failed to establish or was terminated too early. Payments begin in December 2026.

If an unforeseen event prevents compliance, notify the county board in writing with an explanation and supporting evidence within 15 working days of being able to do so. You may still qualify.