NSA Scottish Region CAP Conference
Date: 25th November 2013
A NSA Scottish Region CAP conference held in late 2013 provided a unique opportunity for Scottish sheep farmers to voice their opinion and ensure they were heard, and was the first of many on-going events where NSA collected the necessary views to effectively represent the sector in its response to the Scottish Government’s CAP consultation.
There was a predictable lack of firm information from David Barnes and Ian Davidson, the two Scottish Government speakers in the conference’s morning session, but they were very candid on which post-2014 changes were definite and which would be influenced by responses to the consultation.
Perhaps the clearest point to come from Mr Barnes was thatfarmers trying to calculate how their direct payment might change must appreciate the current Single Farm Payment and new Basic Farm Payment could not be compared. This was not only because of the move from historical payments to area payments but because of all the ‘top slicing’ for various schemes.
This is something Mr Davidson picked up on too – see flow chart – explaining how fundamental decisions were about things like the suckled calf scheme, support for areas of natural constraint (the new name for LFAs) and payments to young farmers.
Mr Barnes suggested these should not be seen as ‘deductions’, as the money was staying within agriculture, but would be coming back to farmers in a different way. Greening should also be viewed as the ‘sweetener’ to Europe for not cutting the CAP budget.
On the issue of greening, Mr Barnes said the decision to be made was a simple ‘one or the other’ – the three requirements from Europe (pasture maintenance, crop diversity and ecological focus areas) or a basic environmental stewardship scheme, not both. This, like everything else, is up for debate in the consultation document that NSA Scottish Region and others will respond to.
“We have some decisions to make and choices to take, which will be difficult because of the tightness of the budget,” said Mr Barnes. “There is a lot of European rhetoric about ‘simplification’ but we’ve ended up with a lot of things, particularly in Pillar One, that are going to be complicated. In Scotland there is the temptation to tweak things and add clauses because of that, and while all that is very well meaning, it just adds more complication to an already complicated system. One of the challenges facing us is finding where the right balance lies.
“On Pillar One there is a lot of change. Remember not to compare the Basic Farm Payment to the Single Farm Payment, but also that transition between to the two will be phased in over time. With Pillar Two there may well be less change but some really important improvements.”
Mr Davidson provided some additional detail on all the areas introduced by Mr Barnes, discussing the pros and cons of some of the decisions to be made, including how to divide Scotland into different regions/land types for different levels of payment.
Regionalising Scotland was an issue picked up by Jeremy Moody of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers in the first slot of the afternoon session. His recommendation to Scottish Government and stakeholders responding to the consultation was to look at where the shocks would be initially and where you wanted the money eventually, using the transition period over the next few years to move from absorbing the shocks to getting the money to where it needed to be. He said the fewer land classifications the better (certainly no more than three) and to choose something that had a clear boundary, as ‘95% sure is not enough’.
“The earlier the Government makes the decisions, the earlier it can tell you and the earlier it can tell it’s computer systems,” said Mr Moody. “Otherwise, all road signs point into fog.”
This echoed something Mr Davidson had alluded to in the morning session, when he said: “We’ve done well at getting the money out of door on time on the past. I’m not saying we won’t do that again, but this is more complicated.”
Given the considerable delay to payments when England moved from an historical system to area payments, the final speaker of the day – Douglas Bell of SAC Consulting, SRUC – was even more direct. He advised farmers to speak to their bank if they had large loan repayments timed to coincide with their SFP cheque, as they might not get that cheque at Christmas 2015. He recommended that all farmers prepared for disruption to their income at that time, and ready themselves for lower payments moving into the future.
“You can do very little about all this but I know farmers who are using it as an excuse for sitting on their hands,” he said. “Instead, get yourself in the top third of producers. The figures show there is money to be made from sheep farming without subsidies. It is pretty tough for hill sheep, but on beef and sheep farmers it is not predominantly sheep that are responsible. Be motivated and committed to doing the absolute best job you can do. Technical excellent is your number one priority.
“Look at kilos of lamb produced per kilo of ewe, look at fixed costs, hit market spec and take some time out to think about your strategy. If your response to every single challenges it to work harder, that is not a sustainable strategy.
“And love them or hate them, in order to be a successful farmer, take advantage of whatever support payments suit your farm. That’s not just a case of not fouling up cross compliance and greening, but, depending on what SRDP looks like in the future, jump on that ship and don’t let it sail away without you.”
