It soon became obvious at this week’s NFU Scotland Angus branch meeting that the greening measures within the new CAP are causing real concerns among farmers.
NFUS policy director Jonnie Hall had outlined the basic workings of the new CAP to a rapt audience but when he came to describe the greening options the questions flew thick and fast.
It is hardly surprising that Angus farmers are concerned because most will be in Region One (arable, temporary grass and permanent grass) of the new payment scheme and most will have to comply with a raft of measures including setting aside 5% of their arable and temporary grass area as Environmental Focus Areas (EFA).
As Mr Hall pointed out, the option of simply ignoring the requirements is not a viable one.
Some 30% of the new Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) relied on complying with greening measures.
With BPS estimated to be worth around e220 per hectare (euros/ha) for Region One this would mean a loss of e70/ha which few businesses could afford.
“But non compliance will become increasingly costly,” said Mr Hall.
“By 2017 25% of the entire BPS would be taken away as a disallowance.”
This leaves farmers with little choice but to comply and find the EFA measures which will suit their business best.
“The problem is that the Scottish Government has given us quite a narrow list of options and has refused to allow standard measurements for features such as hedges and watercourses,” he added.
“Fallowing the appropriate area of land looked like the easiest option with the fallow period likely to be January 15 to July 15.
“Buffer strips alongside watercourses had to be between two metres and 20 metres wide and could be sown in grass which could be cut and carted off.
“Field margins against fixed boundaries had to be between one and 20 metres wide with no agricultural production allowed.
“Fallow is easier to understand and manage and can count as the third crop for those struggling to meet the three-crop rule.”
Buffer strips could be difficult to measure especially where they followed a meandering watercourse.
On the other hand margins and strips have an advantageous weighting where 1ha of land used for these purposes would be regarded as 1.5ha of EFA.
Mr Hall’s concerns were that Scottish Government inspectors would spend so long checking measurements that the whole BPS schedule could be delayed and farmers might risk not being paid in December.
Scottish Government had performed well in delivering the soon-to-be-replaced Single Farm Payment (SFP) with most money in farmers’ bank accounts by the end of December.
Brechin farmer Martin Cessford said he was worried that if the scheme was too complex payments might not be made until the next June which would still be within the allowable EU window for disbursing funds.
Mr Hall replied:“NFUS have made it very clear to government that if there is to be any delay everyone would need to have plenty of warning so that cash flow problems could be avoided as much as possible.
“We have asked if payments could be made in instalments, say 80% in December with the balance later, but the European Commission have been very blunt and said that would be possible if it was due to hardship caused by flood or earthquake but not if it was because of an IT issue.”
Growing catch crops after the main harvest would also count as EFA and that appeared to include grass undersown in a spring barley crop.
Stubble turnips or other fodder brassicas sown after harvest would also count but it was likely they could not be grazed off until after December 31.
Meigle farmer Adrian Ivory pointed to the uneven way in which nitrogen fixing crops (NFC) had been treated across the UK.
English farmers could grow vining peas as a qualifying crop but the “ridiculous” earliest harvesting date of July 31 effectively ruled out such a use in Scotland.
English farmers only had to wait until July 1 before the crops were harvested and the viners could move in even earlier if photographic evidence proved the crop was ready.
“Scottish growers are going to lose out on a profitable cropping opportunity whereas English growers are not,” Mr Ivory said.
Mr Hall agreed but argued NFUS had still “scored a victory” on nitrogen fixing crops by insisting only one crop species had to be grown in each parcel of NFC rather than two as originally proposed.