If there is one issue keeping farmers awake at night just now it is the lodging of their Single Application Forms (SAF).
No SAF equals no Basic Payment Scheme subsidy cheque so this is an important matter.
The problem is that it just is not easy and the preferred and much vaunted online system is now, a good fortnight since its launch, still apparently far from perfect.
Looking on the bright side it can be said that these are early days but Defra has already set a precedent by abandoning its system altogether. Farmers in England are now having to fill in paper forms.
These are not pre-populated with field data so the scope for error is enormous.
All the information from these forms will then have to be loaded onto a rectified electronic system by Defra staff.
The potential for delays looks huge so its little wonder that most commentators are hoping the Rural Payments and Inspection Directorate in Scotland do not follow suit.
John Hope makes that very point in his column on the next page and former NFU Scotland vice-president Peter Stewart in his open letter below also comes out in favour of staying online even though his own experience of completing his SAF has been fraught with difficulties.
There is another big quandary for Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead.
He has to decide fairly soon whether or not to extend the application window by a month making the last date June 15.
Here opinions differ.
Mr Stewart urges the Cabinet Secretary not to take the option on the grounds that it would only lead to delays in payments.
Mr Hope takes the opposite view believing the extra month would allow more time for the online system to be made glitch free.
The Scottish Government’s performance over the next few weeks will be critical.
Implementing the new CAP has cost £138 million to date with the new computer system taking up a big slice of the budget.
If it all collapses Richard Lochhead’s reputation as a competent minister will go with it. The big losers will be Scotland’s farmers.
* Open letter from Peter Stewart, Urquhart Farm, Dunfermline.
The Rural Payments and Inspection Directorate (the Department to men of my age) would be well advised to obey the siren call made by Sergeant Fraser in Dad’s army don’t panic.
I have worked my way through the online registration and filled in the application form.
After completing the exercise, the important new parts work well including the calculation of the percentages under the three crop rule and the area calculation of the Ecological Focus Areas.
These are the bits that are likely to cause grief for many.
But there are parts to fix quickly.
Under the old online system, great detail was given on the details of every line and what one should put in each box.
There are no instructions with the new system, only repeated explanations on what constitutes fallow, buffers etc.
That does not belong here, because by the time most farmers get round to filling in the application everything will be sown, ploughed and otherwise beyond action.
When actually filling in field boxes, if the ‘generic exclusion’, whatever that means does not match the difference between the total area and the eligible area, then you are stuffed.
It will give you a ‘validation error’ message no matter what you try.
If one has permanent grass, then the ‘activity’ section only has ‘arable’ as the suitable selection, which seems counter-intuitive.
But most importantly, I don’t want to be offered the paper option when I phone up with a query.
The online way is the way forward and the method I have used for many years.
I also don’t think we should use the option of delaying the application till June 15.
It was made quite clear that important calculations on eligible acreages for Scotland as a whole have to be made once all applications are in, so delay is dangerous and will hold back everyone’s payments.
There are always some who wait till the last minute.
All told, the sooner a user group meets with the programmers the better, and we can once again get one over on our friends down south.
* Responding to Mr Stewart and Mr Hope’s comments, a Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We welcome feedback on the Rural Payments and Services system, which has been developed specifically for the new CAP and SAF, and we will factor these specific comments into our ongoing work to continuously improve the system.
“We continue to encourage as many people to apply online, as the new online SAF has several advantages over paper forms including automatically checking for errors.
“This new feature, which should mean quicker payments and fewer penalties, has been designed to help claimants apply for support under the new, more complex policy.
“The Scottish Government is currently giving serious consideration to the offer to extend the SAF deadline and the likely consequences that would arise, including a potential delay to payments which farmers and crofters have told us they are keen to avoid.
“We are consulting closely with stakeholders as we weigh up all the options but, in the meantime, we urge farmers and crofters to register for Rural Payments and Services and submit their SAF in plenty of time ahead of May 15 2015.”
As of Monday morning there were 130 completed and 1,156 partially completed online Single Application Forms on the Rural Payments and Services system.
In addition, an estimated 100 SAFs have been submitted on paper to the Scottish Government.
* On one of the most critical weeks of CAP implementation RPID’s Perth office has been largely without a telephone system.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The telephone system in our RPID area office in Perth has been experiencing intermittent disruption since being upgraded last Thursday.
“As a result, a small number of customers trying to dial the main office number have had their calls diverted to the RPID office in Galashiels, which is also able to provide information and advice.
“There was also an issue with the number for the potato labelling team, which has now been resolved.
“Our external contractors are working to fix the outstanding fault as a matter of urgency.
“However, the majority of calls to the Perth office are getting through.”