Hill and tenant farmers attack Beckett''s claims

Originally from: Farmtalking
                        
From: ...

Originally from – http://business.scotsman.com/agriculture.cfm?id=188752004

Hill and tenant farmers attack Beckett's claims

FORDYCE MAXWELL RURAL AFFAIRS EDITOR – 17th february 2004

GOVERNMENT minister Margaret Beckett’s contention yesterday that common agricultural policy reform is a "time of hope" has been savaged by hill and tenant farmers in England.

Beckett, head of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, told the NFU’s annual conference that she had chosen the most sustainable approach for farming in England by basing the single annual support payment from next year on a sliding scale mixture of historic average and flat rate area.

Scotland and Wales opted for the historic average, believing it will cause less distortion and fewer winners and losers.

But Beckett said: "I believe the approach I have taken for England sets out a basis for payment that is increasingly equitable between farm types.

"It is much more market-focused, simplifies the bureaucracy and delivers a better landscape and environment."

Once implemented, she said, a flat rate will be simpler to apply and understand and phasing it in will give farmers "ample time" to adapt.

But Reg Haydon, chairman of the Tenant Farmers Association, will today repeat his claim that Defra’s hybrid choice had "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory" because it gave in to the views of the Country Landowners Association, which wants subsidy tied to the land, and the one-million member RSPB.

He is expected to tell the TFA’s annual meeting that Defra’s plan is "misguided, misjudged and seriously damaging to tenant farmers".

Some of his members were saying that yesterday. One who farms in Hereford, four miles from the Welsh border, claims that by 2012 there will be a £40,000 a year difference between his business and a friend in Wales with a similar size farm and livestock.

Several Northumberland farmers in the new classification of "severely disadvantaged area" have calculated that their support payment will drop by two-thirds by 2012.

But their real complaint is that much of that money will be transferred to lowland farmers growing crops such as potatoes, vegetables and fruit which have never been subsidised.

Audrey Porksen, a tenant hill farmer’s wife near Rothbury, said: "For many tenant farmers, the capital assets of their business are their only pension fund – stock, equipment and quota.

"But the government has raided their pension pot and given their quota to their landlords. That’s theft. Is it legally permissible? It certainly cannot be morally permissible."

Robert Forster, chief executive of the National Beef Association, said that suckled calf breeders on the fringes of the severely disadvantaged areas would be hardest hit by the difference in payment of about £75 per hectare (SDA) and about £220 (non-SDA).

Specialist beef finishers will also be hard hit, he said. But he urged farmers not to make hasty decisions because significant changes in detail were still possible.
                        

Originally from: Paul Buxton
                        
i> Some of his members were saying that yesterday. One who farms
i> in Hereford, four miles from the Welsh border, claims that by 2012
i> there will be a £40,000 a year difference between his business and
i> a friend in Wales with a similar size farm and livestock.

i> Several Northumberland farmers in the new classification of
i> "severely disadvantaged area" have calculated that their support
i> payment will drop by two-thirds by 2012.

It was never going to be anything else especially in the SDA areas carrying a higher stocking rate than the very worst places. Those
beef producers near to the Scottish border may get an advantage with sales to those in Scotland who look like getting an enhanced package
for beef.

i> Audrey Porksen, a tenant hill farmer’s wife near Rothbury,
i> said: "For many tenant farmers, the capital assets of their
i> business are their only pension fund – stock, equipment and quota.

I do remember when this statement was true. It hasn't applied since
the BSE outbreak. So how many years is that in which tenant farmers have had to make other provision?

Cheerio, PAul

9:19:14 PM
Created with The Bat 2.02.3 CE