MAFF lifeline for hill producers
MAFF lifeline for hill producers
By Isabel Davies
HILL farmers who have been told they may not be eligible for hill farm allowance payments have been thrown a vital lifeline although they have just two weeks to prove to MAFF that they should qualify for the payment.
Early this week 3400 producers received a letter from MAFF warning them they may not qualify for HFA support.
The letter said MAFFs records showed they were under the minimum stocking density required and unless they could prove they had extra stock or were in an agri-environmental scheme they would not get paid.
The calculations were based on MAFFs general approach under the HFA scheme which is to work out stocking densities using only the number of animals on which Suckler Cow Premium or Sheep Annual Premium was paid.
But after the NFU pointed out that producers with both lowland and less favoured area (LFA) land would be disadvantaged unless there was also an exemption for people who also qualified for extensification payments the ministry has been forced to back-track.
The way MAFF was working meant that some producers with split farms were not left with enough livestock units (LUs) on LFA land to bring them above the minimum level for payments.
MAFF was allocating most of their stock to their lowland areas so they did not meet the 0.15LU/ha requirement on their LFA land.
But officials agreed on Tuesday (Jan 30) that if producers can prove they are eligible to claim under the Extensification Payment Scheme they will calculate the stocking density using a different formula.
Rather than assuming that all non-LFA land is stocked at 2.0 LU/Ha it 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.
Peter Allen, NFU less favoured areas committee chairman, urged farmers to make sure they took action. "Producers must respond straightaway to MAFFs letter ensuring eligibility for this years payment," he said.
Following the new advice farmers must notify MAFF by Feb 16 if they are eligible to claim under either tier of the Extensification Payment Scheme.
Producers must also notify MAFF if they can provide evidence they are in an agri-environmental scheme because they will be eligible for HFA even if they have less than the minimum stocking density.
Producers who can prove they have other suckler cows or breeding sheep on the holding should also contact MAFF so these animals can be taken into account in the calculations.