Guides · September 2026
SFI 2026 Window 2: a free check first, then a plan you can type straight in
Window 2 is expected to open on 22 September 2026, and it's open to every farm with at least 3ha of agricultural land linked to its SBI. Three weeks is plenty. Here's how FieldBook helps at each end of the application — a free check before you decide anything, and a hand-off that turns your plan into what the Rural Payments form actually asks for — without ever touching the form itself.
First: is it worth it for your farm?
Before you spend an evening on an application, find out roughly what's on the table. Open FieldBook, choose "Not yet — what could I earn?", and enter your SBI (or try the sample farm). In a moment you'll see which window you can apply in, which of the 71 SFI 2026 actions your land suits, grouped by the land you actually have, and a rough figure for what that could be worth a year.
No account is needed and your SBI is never stored — the check reads your parcels from the RPA's public land data and keeps nothing. The figure is indicative, because it leans on the RPA's land-cover mapping rather than on what you know about each field. It's enough to answer the only question that matters at this stage: whether to carry on.
Then: build the plan parcel by parcel
If the answer is yes, the planner works the way the application does — one parcel at a time. For each parcel it shows only the actions that fit its land cover and position, and checks the same-area rules as you go, so an action that can't share land with one you've already chosen is flagged before it costs you at inspection. Add what you'd genuinely do, and the plan totals up by parcel and by year.
Finally: take the plan to Rural Payments
This is the part that used to mean re-deriving everything with the form open in another tab. When your plan is ready, Take this plan to Rural Payments gives you a parcel-by-parcel sheet laid out in the order the application asks for it — copy it, or save it as a file you can print or open on the laptop next to the form. It starts with three things worth doing in this order:
- Check your digital maps first. In the Rural Payments service, make sure every parcel in your plan shows the right area and land covers, and that at least 3ha of agricultural land is there. Get any mapping problem fixed before you start — a wrong map mid-application means withdrawing and waiting for a mapping update before you can begin again.
- Work through section 3 one parcel at a time. Select each parcel by its Parcel ID and, for each action on your sheet, either tick 'Select action' for the whole available area or type the hectares into 'Quantity'. The sheet gives you the number to type.
- If the portal's 'SFI available area' is smaller, enter the portal's figure. It deducts land already in another scheme action, ineligible land uses, and protected or moorland land. Then come back and adjust the plan so the two agree.
You can save the application and come back before submitting, but you can't amend it once it's in — so the sheet is worth checking against the portal parcel by parcel before that last click.
What FieldBook never does
It never submits for you and never signs in to Rural Payments. The hand-off ends with a plain link to the service's front door; everything after that is you, your sign-in, and the official form. Your plan and your parcels stay yours.
Always check GOV.UK before you plan around the date — this page is not the official source, and 22 September is DEFRA's expected date, not a promise. FieldBook never submits for you: you apply through the official Rural Payments service.