It is always a good time to remind yourself of the rules in place for cross compliance and greening.
The NFU has put together a couple of short guides to set the scene for you, as with anything, there is no substitute to reading the rule book its self.
See also: 2017 Cross Compliance handbook published and 2017 Greening Guidance
NFU has over the years worked very hard to ensure there is no gold plating with the cross compliance and greening rules, spending many hours reviewing draft guidance to make it as easy as possible to read and understand.
So what are the headlines?
Greening - Why is it important to review your 2016 approach now for BPS 2017?
There are two good reasons:
1. Reminder that greening is an annual consideration for farmers to consider. A farmer’s ‘exposure’ to the Crop Diversification and EFA rules are based on their arable area element (which they have at their disposal on 15 May 2017) which could change due to a number of reasons since 2016 application was made, such as:
- Change in size of farm
- Change in eligible BPS area
- Change in arable area
- Change in organic land area
- Temporary grass becoming permanent grass
- Changes to the areas of permanent crops etc.
2. There will still be unresolved greening problems from BPS 2015 and 2016 that have yet to be fully explained and appreciated where the farmer has made an error and so reading the guidance again to get greening right is key.
Cross Compliance – Why worry about this now?
Most farmers last copy of the cross compliance rules was from 2015, the rules have been tweaked for 2016 and again now for 2017, so it is key to read the latest version, the RPA will be inspecting farms against the 2017 version this year. Whilst there is only one main change for 2017 (GAEC 1 – Establishment of buffer strips along watercourses, where from 1 January 2017, land parcels of 2 hectares or less next to watercourses will have to comply with all the rules to protect watercourses against pollution and run-off from agricultural sources as), most failures are around record keeping, so a read up now could save you time and problems later in the year.
More help?
If members have any Questions? Members should call NFU Callfirst on 0370 8458458.