Lochhead attempts to soothe sheep farmers over tagging

For the many Scottish sheep farmers still unsure about the degree of accuracy they will require to exhibit in counting their flocks with the electronic identification system, Richard Lochhead, the Scottish Government rural affairs secretary, yesterday did his best to provide the necessary comfort.

Ironically speaking at a major beef event in Fife, Lochhead said that, providing sheep farmers were “sensible” in their record keeping, he was sure the response by the enforcing authorities would be “reasonable and proportionate”.

But he declined to put any specific figure on how accurate the figures might have to be.

His political adversary, George Lyon, one of the Scottish MEPs, referred to the letter sent out by the Scottish Government last week to sheep farmers, which asks them to keep “most if not all” sheep EID records. “What does that mean?” he asked rhetorically.

George Milne, the development officer for the National Sheep Association in Scotland, said he welcomed the rural affairs secretary’s approach of being as flexible as possible in this situation where everyone fears the possible future action of EU auditors who are known to be wanting 100 per cent accuracy in the sheep EID system – a position accepted by everyone in the Scottish sheep sector as unachievable but which could see financial penalties being imposed for discrepancies.

Milne said he wanted to see if changes could be made in the attitude of those in Brussels in the short term and he also looked forward to trying to bring more flexibility into the system with the coming reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Referring to the publication next week of the European Commission’s reform proposals, Lochhead said he could not comment specifically as they only status these have at present are as a leaked document from Brussels.

But he did say what he wanted to see emerge from the reform. His list included a firm commitment to activity based farming as opposed to the present system whereby there is no link between support and production.

In a reference to livestock production in the hills and remote areas, he also wanted to see Scotland being able to provide support linked to specific sectors of the industry in order to provide economic activity in these areas.

What he did not want to see was a proposal for taking land out of production which he described as “Set Aside, a luxury we cannot afford”.