Time ticking towards applications deadline

Having been away for a couple of weeks, I have got back to find that the software system has not advanced one iota and the task ahead of us is rapidly becoming impossible.

Last Thursday, I spent an interesting hour with Minette Batters, NFU deputy president, when she came to Yorkshire to speak in Malton and visit York Market. I thoroughly approve of Minette – she is intelligent, competent and practical, with her feet firmly planted in the soil.

She understood the cliff edge towards which we are now racing and is going back to ask the government for some concessions as the problems are of their own making.

The argument will be a difficult one, because if the May 15 deadline is extended to, say, the end of the month, then as a country we are liable for EU fines, but to transfer those penalties to the farming fraternity is simply not fair.

Here is an update of the position as of Monday morning:

• Registration – This facility has been available since the middle of January but there are still 25 per cent of farmers who are not registered. If you haven’t done so please make a resolution to sign up this week;

• Business details – You can view your business details to see if they are correct, but you can’t alter them at present. Facility available shortly;

• Set-up permissions – You can authorise managers, secretaries and agents to view your business details with varying permissions. If you use an agent this will enable them to access your screen and to be sent the latest updates;

• Mapping – This functionality has suffered successive setbacks and will be of little use until it is robust enough to withstand the intended workload.

Last Saturday the whole system was shut down with a brief notice to say it would be back on Monday, but as I put pen to paper it is still offline. Currently you can look at individual fields on your holding, which is a pretty drawn-out piecemeal operation.

Our advice is to get the latest version of the RLR plans from the RPA as soon as possible, as they shut up shop on March 31.

Using these base maps you can then mark on the following essential features: land use and cropping; any split fields, mergers or changes to boundaries; and identify hedges, buffer strips and other areas to be used for your Ecological Focus Areas.

• Entitlement Transfers – Although this was promised before the end of January, the programme is still not online and so anyone with entitlements to transfer one way or the other needs to be prepared;

• Active Farmer, Young Farmer and New Entrant – None of these features are yet available but have been promised for early April;

• Claim Submission – This is the element that pulls everything together and again its release is forecast as sometime in April, which gives precious little time before D-Day.

Our problem as agents is that all the above new processes require several visits to and from clients; so please don’t put off making an early appointment if you want help.

Dairy crisis deepens

THE farmers’ cooperative, First Milk, has come under almost universal criticism for its draconian cuts to the farm gate price, and the introduction of A & B price formulae.

The A quota price will be 20.8ppl and the B level will be 16-18ppl.

Bearing in mind that current cost of production is somewhere between 25 and 28ppl, acceptance of First Milk’s offer is little short of suicide.

Last week a new MD from Mars Pet Care was appointed – Mike Gallacher.

One disillusioned farmer member came up with the caustic comment that “no one on earth could save First Milk, so they’ve got someone from Mars!”.

Badger cull

LAST week the Labour front bench showed its complete contempt for the farming vote by announcing it would call an immediate halt to the badger cull trials. This Government proposes to extend the culls to 10 further regions and then 40 more areas.

If the BPS programme allows us time to vote, we should all give thought to the effect of the Labour announcement.