Single payment regime has now arrived (From Gazette & Herald)

Single payment regime has now arrived

THERE should be warning signs out on every farm as we have now entered the Single Payment regime - as from January 1 - and every movement we make in January will be scritinised carefully by the Rural Police Agency (RPA) in July.

As ever, we have one hand tied behind our backs with no option but to play this game where our livelihoods are at stake.

We cannot get prior approval for our actions and yet DEFRA can impose penalties with hindsight. The first date in the SP calendar is looming on January 15 when the set aside period commences.

From that day on, you must not harvest any crops remaining on the set aside ground or graze the land until after July 15; and, indeed, the end of the set aside period is not until August 31.

This year, we need to be especially careful as the Set Aside Entitlements established in 2005 will be cast in tablets of stone for years to come.

By that I mean that SAS entitlements will become exchangeable or tradeable in future years, rather like quota. But if they remain attached to your farm, then you must manage the prescribed SAS area of land in accordance with the rules or risk losing your SP entitlement on the remainder of the farm.

For example, if you need 50 acres of SAS entitlements and fall short on inspection, then you risk not releasing the entitlements to the Single Payment on your other 600 acres of arable land.

The best advice must be to over-provide the set aside this year, rather than risk the penalties; and in any case you can manage the extra in accordance with cross-compliance rules.

Don't forget that set aside is to be eight per cent for lowland England; and is applied to a farmer's arable land which now effectively includes everything that is not permanent pasture or permanent crops. So all land from roots and bulbs to forage crops, and temporary grass will qualify as arable.

There is a new bible called Set Aside Handbook and Guidance for England on the DEFRA web site.

Monday, January 31, is the deadline for submitting all hardship applications for the SP regime.

The RPA is despatching a new set of forms called SP2A for us to complete having failed to get the first form correct.

I have seen one or two of these and they require another raft of questions answering.

Because it is so vitally important I mention again that any farmer who has not received their information statements detailing their historic claims (SP1 ETC) from the RPA should contact them immediately.

I am sorry about the boringly serious content of the column at the moment and here are few lighter bits of news.

If you are not on Tony Blair's Christmas card list don't be too disappointed as he only sent out 1,600. Conversely you could feel justifiably miffed not to receive one from George Bush who dispatched 2 million!

The bottom story of the week comes out of the Beatles memorabilia bag of nonsense; and targets a roll of lavatory paper that was spurned by the group in 1980 because it was too shiny!

The same bog standard roll has been put on the e-bay auction with an asking price of £40,000. That is enough to wipe the smile off anybody's face!

Although numbers were good, trade was miserable for beef cattle at the end of the year as producers marketed unfit animals in order to claim Slaughter Premium before it finished on December 31.

As the subsidy is forecast to be around £50, this would mean that a 500kg steer would need to have a price rise of some 10p per kilo to compensate.

In the event the jump in spot price for live cattle has been more serious and many will have seen a lift of 15-20p per kilo.

Tuesday's market at Malton was extremely buoyant with many buyers going away with their order books short.

Friesian bulls with flesh could make from 95-103p per kilo; and the best continentals from George Marwood were up to 147p per kilo.

The question the farming fraternity need to ask is whether this surge in the price would have happened without live auctions. There seems little doubt that the deadweight system is a price follower not a price leader; and if we want to maintain the live auction we need to support it.

No better time than now.

My brother Nigel's memorial service took place in York Minster last Friday and it was a fitting tribute to his life's work in the agricultural community of our county.

Lord Jopling spoke on behalf of his clients and his four children bravely ended the service with their own recollections.

The Minster provided the most splendid setting for the service and the family thanks all the 1200-1400 people who attended.

Forward 113 cattle including 27 bulls, 883 sheep including 248 ewes. Light steers to 133p G I Marwood, Harome, ave 114.1p, heavy steers to 137p G I Marwood, Harome, ave 110.2p light heifers to 136p, G I Marwood, Harome, ave 116.1p, heavy heifers to 147p G I Marwood, Harome, ave 118.6p, medium bulls to 113p R Mason, Ling Hall, ave 107.3p, heavy bulls to 119p M Craggs, Ebberston, ave 106.5p, black and white bulls to 104p A M Avison, Black Bull, ave 89.5p, light hoggs to 113.3p Mrs J Cundall, Sherburn, ave 108.8p, standard hoggs to 131.5p L Fowler, Stokesley, ave 116.7p, medium hoggs to 122.7p D Earnshaw, Salton, ave 113.9p, heavy hoggs to 122.1p H W Ward & Sons, Kirby O'Carr, ave 110.9p, ewes to £59.50 S Beeforth, Robin Hood's Bay, ave £35.60.

Updated: 13:04 Wednesday, January 12, 2005