Test

Northern Ireland Assembly Member Michelle McIlveen has been appointed as the new minister of agriculture – the third Michelle in a row to hold the post.

Ms McIlveen heads up the new Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, which has replaced the old Department of Agriculture and Rural Development following a shake-up of all government departments under the Fresh Start agreement.

The Democratic Unionist politician takes over from former agriculture minister Michelle O’Neill, from Sinn Fein, who in turn had succeeded her party colleague Michelle Gildernew in the same post.

In a statement, Ms McIlveen said she wanted to ensure continued growth of the agri-food industry, but with an eye on the new environmental brief.

“The new assembly mandate provides the opportunity to address challenges around the protection and improvement of our natural environment. In the years ahead we must enhance water quality, conserve habitats and species, and support improve ments in recycling and resource management.”

The Ulster Farmers’ Union said Ms McIlveen would face many challenges in her new role, with the farm income crisis at the heart of any initial discussions.

Other priority issues would include securing more fairness along the food supply chain, easing the path of young people into the industry, opening new markets, ensuring direct CAP payments reach farmers in good time, and scrapping the Agricultural Wages Board.

During the last Assembly, Ms McIlveen served as chairwoman of the assembly’s culture, arts and leisure committee and acted briefly as regional development minister before the election on 5 May.

She was educated at Methodist College Belfast and graduated from Queen’s University with a masters in Irish politics and a certificate in education.

Brussels has effectively run out of tools to help support the dairy market, EU farm commissioner Phil Hogan has warned.

Total private storage aid and public intervention had covered 2.8m tonnes of dairy products last year – at a time when EU production increased by 3.5m tonnes, he told a special meeting of MEPs.

In a bid to help producers, Brussels since announced a range of measures, he said, including an income aid package and measures to take milk off the market.

“We have now effectively deployed all of the tools available in the CAP toolkit,” he admitted.

Controversially, these measures included giving producers permission to get together and agree to curtail milk output – something which would usually breach EU competition rules.

Mr Hogan believed such a measure – known as activating Article 222 – could help rebalance the market.

But industry leaders in countries such as the UK argue that any reduction in dairy output would simply be offset by farmers increasing production elsewhere.

Mr Hogan said: “This is a voluntary instrument and its use depends ultimately on producers and is now genuinely in the hands of dairy farmers who may, if they so wish, join forces and collectively decide to reduce production.”

MEPs attending the debate urged the commissioner to go further. They called for an EU-wide lid on milk production to boost prices, a more efficient intervention system, and fairer balance along the supply chain.

They insisted that the current milk crisis was caused by the Russian embargo on foodstuffs, the end of milk quotas and a drop in global demand, all of which justified an EU solution.

Mansel Raymond, dairy chairman of the EU farm umbrella organisation Copa Cogeca, agreed more action was needed to address the sector’s short-term problems.

Mr Raymond said he was disappointed that EU member states had paid out only about half the aid made available by Brussels under the first EU crisis package.

Article 222 was not being used because there were no financial incentives for it, suggested Mr Raymond.

Delays in direct payments were also causing problems for farmers.

“Possible EU financing should not affect the crisis reserve,” said Mr Raymond. “Producers need their fair share of the margins through the food supply chain.”

With little sign of prospects improving, Mr Hogan said the commission would again increase the amount of skimmed milk powder taken off the dairy market (see Business, p18).

French authorities have held a public consultation over plans to renew the licence to cull badgers in the Somme, amid claims the animals are damaging crops and farm machinery.

The prefecture of the Somme said a maximum of 1,500 badgers could be culled in the northern French district using a combination of trapping and shooting.

“The badger is a species in expansion in certain subdivisions of the Somme, which causes significant crop damage, poses a safety problems through road collisions as well as damage to agricultural machinery,” said the prefecture.

The consultation proposes to start culling operations some time between 1 June and 15 September.

Badger-culling operations have taken place annually in the Somme since 2004.

Since then, 8,702 badgers have been culled in the prefecture, either by specially trained marksmen, using shotguns, or through the use of trapping.

More than 50,000 people on the website Change.org have signed a petition calling for an end to badger culling in the Somme.

The French Society for the Study and Protection of Mammals (SFEPM) described the cull ing operation as an “organised massacre of badgers”, which was “absurd, useless and idiotic”.

UK RESPONSE TO TB

In England, the government is considering farmer-led applications to extend the badger cull to more counties.

Natural England, the badger culling licensee, said a public consultation attracted 939 responses. More than two-thirds raised concerns that businesses could lose out if people avoided areas where badger culling operations were taking place.

Former NFU president Peter Kendall has accused Boris Johnson of “bluff and bluster” after he failed to answer vital questions on the Brexit debate.

In an interview with the BBC’s Countryfile, the former London mayor said any government that did not give farmers the same level of subsidies in a post-Brexit scenario would be “mad”.

However, when Mr Johnson was asked if he could guarantee farmers outside the EU would be paid the same level of subsidies received under the Common Agricultural Policy, he said he was “just a backbench Tory”.

Mr Johnson continued: “It’s an economic no-brainer. It’s much more important to get a guarantee and get commitments from the UK government that you can hold to account, that you can kick out of office and you can elect.”

Mr Johnson also claimed the UK could leave the single market, which offers farmers the opportunity to sell their goods to 500 million EU citizens, and still have access to it in the event of a Brexit.

He also said the UK government, outside the EU and without free movement, would decide how many immigrants would be allowed in to work on our farms.

“If the rural industry was saying, ‘Look, come on, we’re desperate, we can’t get the crops out of the field’, then of course that’s an argument that people will listen to.”

But pro-EU campaign group Britain Stronger In Europe was not impressed by Mr Johnson’s comments.

AHDB chairman and former NFU president Peter Kendall, a leading figure in the “remain” campaign, said: “This is typical bluff and bluster from Boris, who has failed to answer key questions that are vital to the British farming industry.

“He was unable to guarantee that farmers would receive the same support as their key competitors in the European Union. And he could not explain how farmers could sell tariff-free into the EU if we left the single market.”

Meanwhile, Defra farm minister George Eustice has admitted that taking an opposite view to prime minister David Cameron on the EU referendum debate has been “difficult”.

However, speaking at the Royal Bath and West Show on Wednesday (1 June), Mr Eustice said Defra had been working hard behind the scenes. “Although the government says it has got no plan B, it does have people like me who have done a lot of work. I can assure you Defra will be Brexitready if we vote to leave.”

✱ See page 16 for a head-to-head debate between Peter Kendall and Michael Seals on the EU referendum

Struggling dairy farmers have marked World Milk Day (Wednesday 1 June) with a series of protests across Europe over low prices.

Organiser the European Milk Board (EMB), which represents about 100,000 milk producers, said the dramatic consequences of the milk crisis warranted further protest action.

In a statement, the EMB said: “June 1 – World Milk Day – comes at a time when the waves of extremely low milk prices are threatening to drag thousands of European farmers into poverty.”

Following the lifting of quotas, an oversupply of milk, weaker-than-expected Chinese demand and Russia’s ban on western food and drink imports have all been blamed for the slump in dairy.

Over the past two years, farm-gate milk prices have collapsed by nearly 50% in some EU member states. In the UK, hundreds of dairy farmers are producing milk below the cost of production.

To raise awareness of the plight of dairy farmers, the EMB organised protests across Europe.

On 30 May, Dutch dairy farmers blocked a bus with EU agriculture ministers visiting a farm in the Netherlands, as part of the informal council meeting. Dairy farmers also dumped hundreds of rubber boots outside a milk summit in Berlin as a symbol for farms going out of business.

Milk spraying and tipping actions were planned across Germany, while in France milk producers staged protests outside dairies.

On a more positive note, Dairy UK chief executive Judith Bryans spoke of the growing global demand for milk at the International Dairy Federation’s celebration of World Milk Day in South Korea. “Dairy makes a difference to millions of people every day, everywhere,” she said. “It plays an important nutritional role at all stages of life. It also provides millions of livelihoods across the world.”

Send us your Open Farm Sunday photos

⁕ If you are holding or helping out at an Open Farm Sunday event this weekend, we want to see your pictures.

More than 400 farms are expected to welcome 250,000 visitors during this year’s Open Farm Sunday on 5 June.

We will be choosing the best shots to feature in next Friday’s magazine, but we’ll need them by 5pm on Monday (6 June) to be considered for publication.

❭❭ Upload your OFS pictures directly to our gallery at www.fwi.co.uk/ofs2016 or email fwfarmlife@rbi.co.uk

Beef support scheme deadline extended

⁕ Beef farmers across Scotland now have until 15 June to claim their share of £45m support for the sector – equivalent to about £32 per calf.

The Scottish government’s new Beef Efficiency Scheme aims to improve the efficiency, sustainability and quality of the Scottish beef herd, while helping to increase profitability and cut greenhouse gases.

NFU Scotland vice-president Rob Livesey said: “At this busy time of year we welcome the extension. This will allow farmers who wish to be part of the scheme some extra time to sign up.”

⟫Sign up online at www.scoteid.com/bes

Abattoir investigated over cruelty claims

⁕ Seven workers at a Norfolk halal slaughterhouse have been suspended after disturbing footage emerged of animals being mistreated.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has launched an investigation into alleged breaches of animal welfare rules at Simply Halal in Banham.

The footage, recorded over eight days between February and March this year and obtained by animal charity Hillside Animal Sanctuary, showed inhumane treatment of beef and sheep.

The British Veterinary Association has called for CCTV in all slaughterhouses.

Farmers still waiting for their full Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) money can apply for flexible tax instalments to HMRC, relieving the pressure on cashflow.

Although HMRC had not flagged up its extended payments option, one farming family in Berkshire was offered penalty-free monthly payments after refusing to pay their tax dues.

“We received a letter saying if we didn’t pay our income tax bill HMRC would pass it to an external debt collector,” said Elizabeth Brown from Priors Farm near Newbury.

“We wrote to our MP and then HMRC explaining that we’d been owed £40,000 by the government since December, and that until that bad debt was paid we were unable and unwilling to pay the tax due.”

HMRC contacted Mr and Mrs Brown, offering them penalty-free monthly payments until such time as the BPS was paid.

“It was never flagged up as an option until we contacted them,” said Mrs Brown.

“We only had a part-payment of the BPS because we contacted the Farming Community Network – it’s scandalous that you have to go through a charity to make the government pay what it owes.”

An HMRC spokesman said: “Anyone who anticipates payment problems should call us and we will do all we can to help, including offering time to pay.

“We have an outstanding track record for supporting those with genuine problems, providing practical assistance to distressed businesses through our time to pay arrangements.”

A new proposal to extend the licence for glyphosate for up to 18 months is to be put to the vote next Monday (6 June), as the EU Commission tries to find a middle path between supporters and opponents of agriculture’s number one weedkiller.

With the EU licence due to expire at the end of June, member states have been split on the issue, following conflicting scientific advice as to whether the product is carcinogenic or not.

The EU had originally sought a 15-year renewal, but reduced this to nine years in a proposal put to member states on 19 May. But with France joining the group of countries opposed to glyphosate, and Germany set to abstain, the commission could not muster sufficient support.

Following concerted diplomatic efforts, the commission has now prepared a fresh proposal. This calls for an extension of the licence pending a new study into the safety of glyphosate by the European Chemicals Agency, which is due to report back in 2017.

Speaking to journalists in Brussels on Wednesday (1 June), EU health commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis said the EU had the strictest licensing procedures in the world, stressing that “decisions should be based on science, not on political convenience”.

“We have called for the expert committee to meet on 6 June to discuss the file once again and take a vote on the basis of a limited extension of the current approval, until the European Chemicals Agency’s opinion dispels the remaining doubts,” he said.

The EU Commission would also encourage member states to ban the coformulant POE-tallowamine, minimise the use of glyphosate in public parks and reduce pre-harvest uses.

If the vote goes against the commission proposal, then it would next be considered by an appeals committee, and could even be put into effect under the EU Commission’s own jurisdiction. Mr Andriukaitis said he was optimistic this would not be necessary.

‘NO SAFETY CONCERNS’

Meanwhile, the Glyphosate Task Force, representing manufacturers, has written to the commission claiming an extension is unnecessary and a full licence renewal is justified.

The letter points to the bulk of scientific opinion, which says there are no safety concerns around glyphosate, including a new study by the World Health Organization’s joint meeting on pesticide residues. According to the full WHO report just published, “glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through the diet”.

Scotland’s new rural affairs secretary Fergus Ewing has apologised to farmers for CAP payment delays and promised that sorting out the scheme will be his number one priority for the foreseeable future.

In a statement to the Scottish parliament, Mr Ewing acknowledged the anger, frustration and hardship experienced by farmers as a result of problems with the implementation of the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS).

“I want to start off with three simple words addressed by me on behalf of the Scottish government to all farmers and crofters who have suffered as result: ‘We are sorry,’ he said. ‘And follow it up with four words: We are fixing it’.”

According to the Scottish government’s weekly figures, 15,222 out of 18,137 eligible claims had been paid by 25 May, which is 84% of claimants.

In addition, the government paid out 5,000 nationally-funded BPS loans during the month of April, worth more than £90m, and more than 40% of these had been repaid already as the main EU-funded payments have been processed, Mr Ewing said.

The government also expected to start payments soon under the coupled support scheme for sheep, and to complete payments under the two schemes for beef cattle.

“The government is doing everything possible to get those payments out before the end of June.”

Douglas McAdam, chief executive of Scottish Land & Estates, welcomed the statement and said it was clear Mr Ewing understood where problems remained.

“It must be remembered that this is not just a crisis affecting farmers, but has severe knockon consequences for the whole supply chain,” he added.

Farmers in England could be waiting for as much as £120m in 2015 Basic Payment Scheme support, according to calculations by the NFU.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) announced on 1 May that all farmers had received either a full BPS payment or a bridging loan worth 50% of the value of their 2015 claim.

But six months after the opening of the payment window, the union has warned that thousands of farmers are still waiting for cash, a situation it describes as “ridiculous”.

About 5,000 are understood to be waiting for the top-up payment to their bridging loan, while several thousand more believe they have been underpaid as a result of an RPA error and have lodged queries with the agency.

A number of the affected farmers are on cross border holdings, where payments are still outstanding because it has proved impossible to share data between the RPA and Rural Payments Wales.

So far the RPA has paid out about £1.31bn, out of an estimated total BPS fund of £1.43bn.

“So there is a £120m deficit there and of that we think £60m is the second tranche of bridging payments and that leaves £60m, which we assume is underpayments,” said NFU vice-president, Guy Smith.

Under EU regulations, the payment window for BPS runs from 1 December to 30 June, with interest paid on any money received by farmers after that date.

However, it has emerged that the EU Commission is currently considering extending this deadline until 15 October to give member states more time to pay.

But, with 94% of claims now completed, the RPA has insisted it has not asked for more time.

The Country Land and Business Association said the government needed to put an urgent action plan in place to address the outstanding issues.

The organisation has called for the RPA to contact individually any farmer yet to receive a payment to explain why not, and to offer face-to-face meetings with claimants to speed up the resolution of outstanding issues.

It has also suggested contacting all claimants who have been subject to mapping changes to give them a chance to respond before any changes are finalised.

The reintroduction of dedicated case workers would also help support claimants, it added.

Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, said he had been approached by a number of farmers in his constituency to express their sheer frustration with the RPA.

“The vast majority of those I have spoken to have not received full payment, but merely a partial one. This causes cashflow problems for the industry and needs rectifying quickly.”

Meanwhile, the RPA has promised to investigate all 2015 claim queries through a planned reconciliation process that will take place from June, once the BPS 2015 payment window closes.

“Farmers who believe their payment is not correct should write to the agency so it can investigate, make any necessary adjustments and top up payments,” it said.

IRELAND UPDATE

✱ Ireland’s Ministry for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has already started preliminary checks on 2016 BPS applications and said it will contact farmers if they find any over claims, dual claims or overlaps.

Applicants will then be given the opportunity to rectify these issues online, with no penalty, so long as it has been done by 20 June.

Member states have been given the option to introduce these preliminary checks as part of a CAP simplification agenda.

The Irish Farmers Association has welcomed the move saying it will reduce errors and speed up processing.