Pack deadline held back as groups ask for delay

LAST night, as the original deadline for submissions on the future of farm support in Scotland ended, some 100 individuals and organisations had submitted their views.

However, that will not be a final figure as a Scottish Government spokeswoman said some organisations had asked for extra time.

In fact, two out of the 12 planned roadshows on the future subsidy regime still have to take place; the first on Benbecula on 15 March and then the following day in Stornoway.

In addition, Brian Pack who has been heading the inquiry, has spoken at a number of other events, including the annual meetings of both the National Sheep Association and NFU Scotland.

Between the official and extra meetings, there have been a total of around 2,000 farmers, land agents and those in ancillary trades who have discussed the proposals. Although as Pack remarked to a meeting in St Andrews this week, many of that total will have attended more than one event.

As the tour progressed, divisions arose between the livestock and arable sectors and accepting that split, Pack hinted this week that these two sectors might be treated differently in the final set of proposals that will emerge later in the summer.

One of the core proposals in the original document suggested that a third of the support could go into a top-up fund that would be used to hit targets such as having an animal health scheme.

Cereal and crop growers realised that they would have little opportunity to access this fund and Pack admitted: "I can see it is easier to fit the top-up fund into the livestock sector and it might be right to have a different type of regime for the better land."

This might mean a two track approach to creating an area based support scheme is on the cards.