Variety holds key to sustaining hill farming

FACED with a decline in livestock numbers coming out from what have traditionally been the breeding grounds for Scottish cattle and sheep, NFU Scotland has suggested changes to the subsidy system in the hills and islands.

Its proposals for change in the Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme place more emphasis on "active farming", with varying rates based on stocking densities.

Back in June 2009, cabinet secretary Richard Lochhead announced plans to increase LFASS payment rates in the Fragile and Very Fragile areas of the scheme by 38 per cent – 19 per cent in the current year followed by another increase of 19 per cent for next year's scheme.

The union said that while the increase in payments in those areas delivered much-needed additional support, those active hill units in the Standard area of the scheme, found across much of Scotland, merited similar levels of assistance.

The proposed modifications from the union would ensure LFASS payments, from 2011, are targeted at all those actively farming in LFA areas, wherever they are in Scotland.

The proposals would also help iron out any anomalies in the scheme brought about by the "re-basing" exercise carried out in 2009, when scheme recipients were required to provide up-to-date livestock numbers to ensure payments were going to those truly active.

The union believes that its proposals using differing levels of support based on stocking density will free up money that could be used to boost LFASS payments to hill farmers in the Standard area by between 15 and 38 per cent.

According to union president, Jim McLaren, "Variable stocking densities will also iron out concerns of hill farmers that the re-basing exercise will not take several categories of stock – ewe hoggs and maiden heifers – into consideration."

He described the LFASS scheme as "fundamentally important for the health and wellbeing of Scotland's hills and uplands" and said it was key to tackling the Scottish industry's mounting concerns over declining cattle and sheep numbers.

"We believe an increase in LFASS payments for land in the Standard area, alongside those increases already agreed for the Fragile and Very Fragile areas, would make a massive contribution to the real costs of looking after livestock in these parts. We have proposed modifications to ensure LFASS payments, from 2011, will deliver just that.

"The re-basing exercise that asked LFASS producers to update their stock numbers has already been completed. Along with our proposed introduction of variable minimum stocking densities for LFASS 2011, this has the potential to free up funding within the LFASS budget.

"We think there are opportunities to use that funding to secure significant increases in the payment rates paid to active producers in the LFASS Standard area and deliver a real shot in the arm to livestock production across a huge chunk of Scotland's hills and uplands."