Taking the plunge with the SP form (From Gazette & Herald)

Taking the plunge with the SP form

WITH a modest show of courage I took the plunge last week and fought my way through the 20-page SP application form.

The client ran a 750 acre arable and beef unit and together we spent a happy couple of hours finding answers to the 60 questions.

But at the end of it we all decided it had been a useful exercise at a time of year not as pressurised as the April forecast delivery for the actual form itself.

Here is my post mortem report:

The first two questions deal with the establishment of entitlements and their activation; and it's important to realise the difference.

The entitlements area includes every eligible acre on your holding but you may wish to activate slightly less than your whole entitlement area because, for example, a field is growing potatoes without the authorisation.

There are constant references to the guidance booklet which currently is nowhere to be seen, and a few questions remain a mystery as a consequence.

There is a full section dealing with the National Reserve applications and as I said last week, the NR will give many the opportunity for a second bite of the cherry.

But it will need careful planning and the production of evidence if you are to be successful.

There is a complete section again dealing with purchases and sales between January 1, 2000 and May 15, 2004.

There are a lot of questions on cross compliance, all of which we could answer after a bit of thought except for one which referred to substances listed in Annex 2d of the cross compliance handbook and which Annex did not appear to exist!

Information is required on the numbers of livestock on your holding as at the date of the application and this is something to be done at the time.

The field date information looks as though it will be delivered in a similar format to IACS of previous years and your actual forms are going to come pre-printed with the 2004 information on them.

There are two extra columns on the data sheets, one for the 2003 cropping and the other for those crops sown in 2005.

As a consequence we found it helpful to have available the IACS sheets and cropping programmes for all three years.

There is a special section on common land which will apply to some.

The last annex is the application for horticultural authorisations which means fruit, vegetables and potatoes.

Here, the ground rules are becoming clearer and more specific by the day.

If you want to establish authorisation to grow FVPs you need to have been the grower in 2003 and will have to provide supporting evidence of your ownership of the crop.

We also found it useful to have the RPA digital maps which revealed various areas that hitherto had not been included on the old IACS returns but would be available for entitlements under the SP scheme.

The exercise focused our attention on the terms of various tenancies and the need to ensure with the landlord that we have enough security to last through to 2011 and the expiration of the historic element.

Two millennia ago Julius Caesar was warned to "beware the Ides of March", and the Emperor dismissed the old man saying "he is a dreamer let us leave him."

In the year of 2005 you would be well advised to be better prepared than our Roman forefathers.

Not the least of our worries is the fact that the chief executive of the RPA, a gentleman called Johnson McNeil, who used to be in charge of the MHS which in itself speaks ominous volumes.

In his latest statement he repeats that we should all be getting sample application forms within the next few weeks but the actual form together with the guidance handbook will not be on your desks until April.

Up to now the only possible date for returning the SP application form has been the Monday, May 16, but in their latest release DEFRA have made two significant comments:

If you get your form back to them before May 16, then RPA will notify the applicants of any errors or omissions so that they can be rectified before the deadline.

If you return your form after May 16, it will not be rejected but will attract a penalty up until June 10 after which date no forms will be processed.

My Farlington correspondent had been renewing his firearms certificate and was amazed to find that it did not include cartridges in which the shot did not exceed 36 inches diameter!

This would appear to give us the opportunity to keep most weapons of mass destruction without a licence; but then our Prime Minister knows that already.

Every one of the 184 foxhound packs in England met last Saturday in a splendid show of defiance to the hunting ban.

I gathered at the Middleton, which attracted 140 mounted followers, at Birdsall and the York and Ainsty had virtually the same in Easingwold Market Place.

Both events were supported by twice as many foot soldiers; and this roughly means that more than 60,000 people showed their commitment to the sport throughout the country.

Richard Mason and his joint masters have written a very sensible letter to all land owners saying "that they are only seeking permission for legal activities that will not create any liability for prosecution".

The first collective machinery sale for 2005 took place at York last Wednesday and an enormous crowd followed the progress of the 4,000 lots being offered in seven simultaneous auctions.

Trade was remarkably good with a very high clearance rate especially for the quality machinery.

Demand was particularly high for good trailers which made up to £4,500 and fertiliser spreaders up to £1,350.

The next sale is on Wednesday, March 23.

I have longed preached that the domination of the Irish beef market by a small number of small abattoirs which has led to the demise of the auction system over there and a lot of disillusion amongst beef producers.

Rather like the supermarkets on this side of side of the St George's Channel, the Irish abattoirs make all sorts of excuses for keeping prices down but the end result has been that few cattle are kept in a country which is ideally suited to producing grass and beef.

The knock on effect has been to benefit at least temporarily UK producers; and auction markets in Yorkshire are now seeing loads of cattle being bought for Northern Ireland.

The live trade is unbeatable at the moment and anyone who has an interest in keeping the auction marts open should offer their support.

Don't forget the auction system is the only one that tries to get more money for the farmer.

I hear noises coming out of the Whitehall corridors that DEFRA is not going to be able to stick to its forecasted official target for introducing older cattle back into the food chain until 2006.

You will remember that the Ministry of Health has been mainly responsible for delays up to press which is costing both agriculture and the country some £300 million per annum.

Now there are some doubts being tossed around because the BSE testing system is not robust enough.

I find it completely unacceptable that we, the customers of DEFRA, are required to comply with specific deadline dates and yet they, the service providers, cannot even get within a year of their projected target!

Forward 142 cattle including 46 bulls, 870 sheep including 221 ewes. Light steers to 139p G I Marwood Harome medium steers to 134p G I Marwood Harome ave 106.2p heavy steers to 125p K & R Riseborough ave 109.5p light heifers to 124p P Wright & Sons Binnington ave 104.04p heavy heifers to 139p G I Marwood Harome ave 109.3p medium bulls to 119p B Dowkes & Sons Sinnington ave 108.4p heavy bulls to 127p M Bulmer Salton ave 106.5p black and white bulls to 101p C Leckenby Pockley ave 87.8p standard lambs to 116.6p M Medd Sawdon ave 111.7p medium lambs to 118.2p E Woodmancey & Son Yatts ave 111.5p heavy hoggs to 114.5p C T Fothergill Foston ave 104.9p ewes to £55 S Mason Butterwick ave £39.50.

Updated: 11:31 Wednesday, February 23, 2005