MAFF backtracks on hill payments

31 January 2001



MAFF backtracks on hill payments

By Isabel Davies

HILL farmers in England – warned this week they may not qualify for Hill Farm Allowance – have been thrown a lifeline by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Farmers with land in both lowland and Less Favoured Areas had feared they would be hit by the way MAFF had been interpreting the rules.

MAFF calculations meant some producers were not left with enough livestock units (LUs) on LFA land to bring them above the minimum level for payments.

But on Tuesday (30 January) night, ministry officials agreed a new formula for farmers eligible to claim under either tier of the Extensification Payment Scheme.

This will be taken into consideration when calculating minimum stocking densities.

Generally, under the HFA scheme, densities are calculated using the number of animals on which Suckler Cow Premium or Sheep Annual Premium was paid.

But farmers on split units were hit by the problem that MAFF worked on the assumption that any non-LFA land was stocked at 2.0LU/ha.

On this basis, it worked out how many LUs were maintained on the non-LFA land and subtracted this figure from the total number of LUs claimed.

The stocking density for the LFA land was then worked out using the remaining number of LUs, leaving some producers below the 0.15LU/ha minimum level.

But MAFF will now calculate the minimum density by dividing the total sum of livestock units claimed by the sum of the lowland and LFA forage area.

MAFF has already asked producers to tell the ministry if they are in an agri-environmental scheme, as they should be eligible, even with less than the minimum stocking density.

It has also said if producers can prove they have other suckler cows or breeding sheep on the holding, then these will be added into the calculation.