Yet another Single Payment update (From Gazette & Herald)

Yet another Single Payment update

I MET a farmer the other day whose accounting year end falls oddly at the end of November and he commented that you cannot believe the difference the absence of subsidy cheques makes to the bottom line.

I only wish that someone would tell Mr Johnston McNeil who runs the Rural Payments Agency.

Wales and Scotland received advanced payments a month ago, but the best Mr McNeil can achieve is to make yet another empty promise that English payments should start to flow by the end of February.

Personally, I think the man should not receive a single penny in salary until he has managed to pay the farmers who are estimated to be losing £25 million in interest.

Perversely, however, the chief executive will receive a hefty bonus if he makes the target date; but I have to tell you there is a more likely backup situation whereby only 60 per cent of our money will be paid over and the balance sometime in June.

Here are a few other bits and pieces on the Single Payment which have happened in the last week:

The mapping problems continue and you do really need to ensure your final version is correct.

On our little farm, we had been waiting since September for a plan which finally arrived 10 days ago and reckoned to be the definitive version. It included a piece of woodland and land belonging to seven different owners!

Instead of a Valentine's card, Mr McNeil is sending this year the definitive entitlements on everybody's holding and expects to deliver on February 14.

In the meantime, those successful applicants to the National Reserve are starting to get letters about their allocation.

You need to be aware that so far, many of the letters contain potential errors and inaccuracies including simple miscalculation of the National Reserve Awards themselves.

The advice coming from my professional body is for anyone receiving a letter to have it checked extremely carefully.

The window for trading and transferring entitlements becomes ever narrower with the final date of April 2 looking dangerously close.

Anyone involved in land deals where entitlements need transferring should take immediate advice and action on receipt of their definitive statement.

If you can't meet the April 2 deadline, there will have to be a backup plan which will mean postponing the transfer until the 2006 season.

With the date for declaring definitive entitlements on the slide, it is making it increasingly difficult for potato and vegetable farmers to plan this year's cropping programme.

It is our opinion that arrangements similar to 2005 ought to be put in place and anyone involved with these crops should take early advice to try and get the paperwork in place.

I will try and keep you updated on further inevitable changes, but despite the efforts of many genuine RPA workers who are now considering strike action, the whole procedure has been shambolically managed.

Please don't forget that this is the last week of the OTMS Scheme as we have known it and from next Tuesday, the following options are available for you:

For those cows born before August, 1996, there will be the Older Cattle Disposal Scheme which will operate in much the same way as the OTMS in that we shall offer the same collection service to you.

We shall continue with our collection day on a Wednesday and would be grateful if farmers could let us know in advance as what they would like to bring.

Remember that the OCDS pays out at a flat rate of around £245 per head this year, which decreases in 2007.

For cattle born after August 1, 1996, we are continuing to offer the sales of these on a Tuesday following clean cattle.

As more buyers come to the market, I am sure there is going to be reasonable competition.

Please note that you cannot sell this class of cattle born after August 1, 1996, through the new OCDS Scheme; you have to dispose of them on the open market.

On Christmas Eve, animal rights activists were thought to have released about 60 wild boars from a farm near Exmoor.

They were the enterprise and living of Alan Dales whose total business was destroyed at a single stroke by the misguided madness.

Despite the efforts of two local hunts, a 100 mounted huntsmen and followers and 20 men on quad bikes, the wild boars have eluded recapture.

In fact, the only success has been a lone male which wandered back into its pen of its own accord!

Last year I reported that a brave couple from Westow had taken on Howsham Mill, which is a John Carr building, fallen into serious disrepair within a generation of being a working mill.

There are still farming folk in the area who remember the mill at Howsham when it was operating and can recall taking loads of corn there to be ground.

In the course of 50 years, it has deteriorated to the point where it has to be restored or become a total ruin.

Mo McLeod and her band of volunteers have spent the past many months hacking away the undergrowth and drawing up plans.

They have gathered together £170,000 in funding provided that they can get consent to restore the mill and create an environmental study centre adjacent.

Anyone wanting any further information please contact Mo McLeod on (01653) 619748.

Historically, January has always been a testing month for the fat cattle trade when consumers realise that they have consumed rather too much of their plastic credit and bank balances.

On the other hand, there has been little marketing over Christmas and the consequent small bulge of meat on the market has put pressure on the price.

Last week in some of the bigger Yorkshire markets, there was a definite downturn with some reports of prices being as much as 10p a kilo adrift.

By the grace of the great "meat God", assisted by Philip Place, our Ryedale farmers have been cushioned so far from the ripples in trade and Tuesday saw quite acceptable level of prices.

Alex Hardwick, of Snainton, topped the market with 145p/kilo for a quite outstanding Belgian Blue heifer but even the breaking up cattle, provided they carried flesh, were making from 88-100p/kilo.

On the evidence so far, prospects for the beef trade this spring look pretty reasonable, and the live market is the place to sell.

Forward 111 cattle including 48 bulls and 14 cows, 1127 sheep including 204 ewes. Heavy steers to 113p S Barker & Sons, Harome, ave 98p; light heifers to 122p A W Hardwick & Sons, Snainton, ave 106.7p; heavy heifers to 145p AW Hardwick & Sons, Snainton, ave 109p; light bulls to 110p AL Wilkinson, Keldholme; medium bulls to 118p, P Nesom, Wilton, ave 108.4p; heavy bulls to 121p J & AM Craggs, Ebberston, ave 107.3p; black and white bulls to 89p AM Avison, Black Bull ave 79.2p; OTM to 68p RW Wood and Co, Stillington, ave 54.5p; ave 79.2p light hoggs to 100p C Leckenby, Pockley, ave 91.6p; medium hoggs to 109.3p FJ Hodsman & Son Ltd, Eddlethorpe, ave 97p; heavy hoggs to 102.5p AM Avison, Black Bull ave 94.5p; overweight hoggs to 89.6p SR Grayson, Pickering, ave 85.6p; ewes to £49 CG Harper Newton, ave £23.80.

Updated: 15:45 Wednesday, January 18, 2006