Henderson wants livestock density eligibility test

Fearful of a massive shift in support which could decimate the Scottish beef industry, the Scottish Beef Cattle Association has suggested using livestock stocking density to confirm that farmers are eligible for subsidies under a reformed Common Agricultural Policy.

Speaking ahead of a specially convened meeting in Bridge of Allan today, SBCA chairman Scott Henderson said that, in order to avoid massive redistribution of payments and to continue to closely target payments to active farmers, what was needed was an area-based system based on actively used hectares.

Henderson, who runs a major beef unit near Dumfries, said that, while there was an acceptance that support should shift to an area basis, he wanted Scotland to avoid what happened in England when they moved to area-based payments after the last CAP reform.

Farms down south in the less favoured areas which are also the breeding grounds for the country’s livestock had lost more than half of their support payments and if the same happened in Scotland, Henderson warned it would have a massive negative effect on cattle numbers.

“Under the present CAP reform proposals and the move to area-based payments, there is going to be some very drastic redistributions in Scotland. These are going to be felt most heavily by beef producers and particularly by those in the LFA areas,” he said. He was not enamoured by the Pack proposals as he reckoned that most LFA beef producers would be looking at a loss in their single farm payments of at least 50 per cent.

The situation in some of the more productive units would be worse, with three-quarters of current support melting away.

“The proposals we have seen to date whether based on land classification or regional funds do not address the individuality of farming,” he continued.

“We all know that it is possible to have two neighbouring farms with the same land classification with one heavily invested in stock, buildings and labour while the other is farmed more extensively.

“Both deserve some support but clearly the more economically active farm is contributing more in terms of employment and food production and so should be encouraged to main his current system.”

He accepted that the EU would not accept a direct linkage with cattle numbers apart from a small percentage of the total support package but believed the use of a formula dividing stock numbers by the acreage farmed changed the support to one based on area.

The beauty of the SBCA proposal as he saw it was that active farmers would be supported while those who had lived on subsidy payments for the past decade but had not been actively farming – the so called slipper brigade – would disappear.

“No farming activity must mean no payment in future,” he stated.