Intermediate response of NBA to debate created by Pack Inquiry

Intermediate response of NBA to debate created by Pack Inquiry

The National Beef Association’s Scottish Council considers it will be impossible for Scotland to avoid being included in an EU-wide move to the area based calculation of SFP after the current round of CAP reform talks are completed.

However it is equally certain that additional support income will have to be channelled into Scotland’s Disadvantaged Areas to maintain suckled calf output – and has identified payments from a top-sliced cash pool assembled through Article 68, rather than the wider concept of the huge, all-Scotland, top up fund suggested by the Pack Inquiry, as the best means of achieving this.

In reaching this conclusion it decided that the Macaulay based formula proposed by the Pack Inquiry would not offer enough cover for stock breeders farming in the Disadvantaged Areas, or in Macaulay LCA Class 5.2 to 7.

To avoid estimated support cuts of up to 50 per cent on active LFA farms, and jarring drops in payments, the NBA suggests that an Article 68 based re-distribution system for tactically re-positioned SFP would be fairer because it would narrow the range of support income payments between Class 1 and Class 7 land.

The Association, which firmly believes that future support income should be paid only to the active manager of farmed stock, and not to those whose only qualification is ownership of land, agrees with the Pack Inquiry recommendation that minimum qualifying stocking rates are imperative.

But it does not support the installation of a maximum stocking density because it is convinced that livestock farmers appreciate being able to adopt flexible management systems that can easily adjust to inevitable shifts in the prevailing management climate.

During its examination of the best means of sustaining meaningful beef production in Scotland under an area based payment system the NBA was aware of just how much farmers enjoy the management freedom created since the de-coupling of support payments in 2005, and how they still look forward to securing more income from the sale of store, breeding, and finished stock.

With this in mind it concluded that the surrender of up to 50 per cent of SFP into a common redistribution pool was an endeavour that could prove too ambitious, and too complicated, for Scottish agriculture to make - as well as being a move likely to provoke longstanding inter-sectoral antagonism that would be best avoided.

It also felt obliged to emphasise that the most important principle for the distribution of CAP funds is to direct as large a proportion of the payments as possible to businesses actively engaged in working the land, and managing animals, rather than filter off much needed funds to passive landowners, pay project managers, or other administrators.

In view of this the NBA suggests that the definition of an active farmer qualifying for SFP receipt must be re-constructed to make sure it covers all persons either owning animals, or being responsible for their well-being, and that the level of payment is proportionate to hours committed to active management.

It would like additional payments made through Article 68 to be directed exclusively at all suckler cows that have calved, with no upper headage limit.

If the budget does not allow this it is prepared to fall in with plans that recognise the expense of keeping a suckler cow and would see around £150 paid on each cow every year up to a maximum of 80 cows a holding.

The Association says the critical role suckler cows play in the delivery of public goods like landscape protection and environmental management must be recognised too.

It would like to see checks on farms taking payments being made every three years, not annually, to minimise management disruption.

Kim Haywood, director of the NBA, is available to take press queries on 0131 3361754/07967 698936.