The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs says it is working on a new proposal.

Livestock farmer Martin Hole grazes his organic sheep and cattle on 280 hectares of the Pevensey Levels, one of the most bio-diverse wetlands in the country.

On the farm hedgerows are left uncut and shaggy, full of berries for birds.

His Sussex cows are adept at grazing on the diverse grasslands of inedible rushes and tough barley grasses that the make up the nature-rich marshland.