Translation of "Prairie temporaire " (French → English) :

‘grassland’ means acreage of the cattle farm cultivated with permanent or temporary grassland (generally temporary lies less than four years).

Sector(s) concerned: Farms on which the following crops suffered damage: flax, maize, permanent or temporary grassland, either grazed or cut, potatoes grown under contract, peas grown under contract, cauliflowers grown under contract (1st harvest), spinach grown under contract (1st harvest), beans grown under contract (sown before 10 June 2006)

The number of hectares taken into account is limited to temporary and permanent prairies and all other forage areas, except arable crops.

Among these habitats we find the alluvial valleys (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, UK), the dry calcareous meadows (France, Italy.), the temporary Mediterranean wetlands (Spain, France) and the habitats of the taiga (Finland, Sweden).

Farmers who fulfil these conditions may enter into a voluntary agreement enshrined in a contract for a minimum of five years: - to maintain the land in question, together with the hedges, ditches and water resources in the correct fashion; - not to reduce the acreage of pasture in use, nor the proportion of permanent pastures in the overall acreage under grass; - to restrict the use of fertilizers to a level compatible with extensive use of the total area of pasture on the holding (maximum of 70 kg of nitrogen per hectare) and to keep temporary pastures for at least 3 years on the same plot.

As for land under grass, the gradual reduction in dairy herds and (possibly) beef herds will release land areas which to some extent, such as temporary grazing, could be included in the area considered to be assigned to cereals, oilseeds and protein crops (COP area).