< Hows your record keeping? I went to an NFU meeting this week about Cross Compliance inspections and was alarmed at what they said. Firstly you get max 48 hours notice but then all paperwork has to be in order or you get docked not just on the Single Payment Scheme but other schemes as well. They said one chap had tagged his sheep and never recorded the date and he got done. Some hope for me, the book I am using does'nt have a space for that so I am up the swanny.p>

Another thing- if you havent got the book called Soil Protection Review (has a John Deere and Dowdeswell plough on the cover) then that is a 5% reduction in your SPS>

I was mad especially after watching the Apprentis after getting home; the contestants were given £150 and had to buy stuff at a cash and carry and sell it on the steet to the public, mainly tanning spray- they took £8-900( my wife pointed out the was no overheads involved & no mention of vat to pay), but that seemed a good profit for selling tat to the chavs in Essex, while we are producing the most essential thing- food and looking after our bit of the countryside and the government/EU try to trip us up at any oppurtunity, it makes my blood boil.

It's mad that's it's a legal requirement to have a book with a picture of a John Deere on the front of it!!

If the Apprentice makes you mad you shouldn't watch Watchdog.  One guy got £2380 for 4 hours work washing and spray painting a tiled roof of a small bungalow.

That's 16 licence fees before you even talk about production costs and Anne Robinson!!

We had a sheep identification inspection, we had 2 or 3 days notice. Plenty of records were looked at including movement records during a sample period, tags were inspected, one found missing (we had obviously looked at them all the previous day and one had gone since) lambing records, retagging records and all sheep counted (we only have about 250 total but they were in 5 fields) Had to get most of them in to read the tags of course.

5 problems, one the missing tag but since we tagged it there and then it was OK, the rest of the problems were to do with movement records - Trading standards or whoever writing down movements that were pigs  as lambs, could prove that we were right and they were wrong.

Clean bill I am happy to say. 

An earlier trading standards inspection also discovered several differences between their record and ours, all proved to be their fault, no apology or loss of earnings for the guilty party.