Get ready for the SP5 form arriving very soon (From Gazette & Herald)

Get ready for the SP5 form arriving very soon

LAST week, James Stephenson kindly informed you that I would give you a run down of the latest SP5 form which will shortly be dropping through your letter box.

You may recall that the RPA promised that the new system of an area-based subsidy would be more straightforward and therefore cut down on paperwork and judging by what we have received at present this would appear to be the opposite.

I have had sight of the new SP5 form during a talk I attended, however, the blank version of the form is still to be published on the relevant websites.

Unfortunately, the form is not the same as last year and it is made up of the following parts:

Part A - Claimant details

Part B - Land use

Part C - Field data sheets

Part D - Common land grazing rights

Part E - Claim for Single Payment

Part F - Additional scheme information

Part G - Cross compliance

Part H - Supporting documents

Part I - Declarations and undertakings

As with last year, it is likely that additional sheets will be required for Part C and Part E above where land/entitlements are not listed in the pre-populated information.

Requests for these additional sheets to the RPA should therefore be made as early as possible on receiving your SP5 form if the need should arise.

I will therefore summarise the above parts as follows.

Part A

Claimant details

This information should all be pre-populated. You can in this section now ask to be paid in euros, however, the default payment thankfully is in sterling.

Part B

Land use

In this section you will be required to confirm your start date for the 10 month period and unlike last year it is possible to have two start dates.

If no start dates are entered a default date of February 1, 2006, will be put in place. This section also deals with set aside strips, organic production and the sowing rate for hemp together with a requirement for supporting documents.

Part C

Field data sheets

These will be pre-populated with the field numbers and areas, however, any transfers that have taken place after the end of February will mean the field data will have to be inserted in ink.

We are informed that farmers should declare all of their agricultural land as at the date of application irrespective of whether he is intending to use it to activate entitlements for payment.

There is no obvious benefit in not recording land and therefore risking potential penalty.

With regards to the land use category codes should be pre-populated where a 2005 SP5 form was submitted. If the pre-populated code is incorrect then it should be amended.

Please note all land transfers have to be recorded on a separate RLE1 form.

Part D

Common land grazing right

This will be based very much on last year's section.

Part E

Claim for single payment

This is a new section within the form and will list all the different types of entitlement held by the farmer.

Where entitlements have been transferred it is unlikely that these will be shown on the pre-populated forms and will therefore need to be inserted.

As many of you are aware there are five main types of entitlements as follows: Normal, set aside, National Reserve, authorised and special entitlements.

Please be aware that you must activate your set aside entitlements and have the correct area before the normal entitlements can be activated for payment.

Please also note that excess set aside will now want to be classed as OT1 and the field therefore divided.

Finally in this section the important part is to activate your entitlements for payment and you can either specify a number for activating the area corresponding on your field data sheets or if there has been no change from last year you may merely put a cross in the relevant box to activate the whole block of entitlements.

Part F

Additional scheme information

This part of the form asks about the activation of special entitlements, National Reserve applications and Less Favoured Area support.

Part G

Cross compliance

As last year there is a list of questions with regards to cross compliance which will need answering. There are some interesting additions!

Part H

Supporting documents

This section asks you to confirm what supporting documents have been included and I would suggest always to include a covering letter with your application detailing exactly what has been enclosed with your application.

Part I

Undertaking and declaration

This where the form is signed off. Good luck!

Market report

Forward 87 cattle including 23 bulls and 2 cows. 1,689 sheep including 267 ewes. Light steers to 113p Charity Farms, Thornton-le-Dale, ave 105.5p; heavy steers to 130p J L Gray, Grindale, ave 115.5p; light heifers to 139p Charity Farms, Thornton-le-Dale, ave 108.9p; heavy heifers to 128p T F W Morley, Fylingdales, ave 111.02p; light bulls to 112p A Tyson, Snainton, ave 108.5p; heavy bulls to 122p R H Mason, Wold Newton, ave 109.5p; black and white bulls to 113p D Kirby, Ebberston, ave 88.4p; cows to 76p A V Pollock, Harwood Dale, ave 71.2p; standard hoggs to 138.1p W Smith, Salton, ave 122.6p; medium hoggs to 133.7p A M Avison, Black Bull ave 126.2p; heavy hoggs to 29.5p D Shepherdson, Wykeham, ave 116.9p; overweight hoggs to 113.2p S Mason, Butterwick, ave 106.2p; ewes to £56.50 C Beal, Yedingham, ave £41.50.

Updated: 15:10 Wednesday, March 15, 2006