The Rural Bulletin - 14 December 2017

Over half of 2017 BPS payments delivered

In the first week of the payment window, over 54,000 farmers (63%) in England were paid their Basic Payment Scheme money for this year, according to the Rural Payments Agency. Payments made so far encompassed a wide range of farm types and sizes including those with common land.

RPA chief executive Paul Caudwell said: “We are making strong progress against last year’s performance and remain focused on getting remaining payments out as quickly as possible, as I understand how important they are for farmers.”

The RPA has pledged to deliver at least 90% of payments (approximately 78,300 out of 87,000 cases) by 31 December 2017.

Bioenergy crop area hits record high

The total land area used for bioenergy crops hit record highs in 2016, according to data released from Defra last week.

In 2016, 132,000ha of agricultural land in the UK were used to grow crops for bioenergy – up 41% on the previous year. Despite this, bioenergy crops made up just 2.2% of all arable land in the UK. Just over half the land used for bioenergy was for biofuel crops, supplying 217m litres of biofuel to the UK road transport market - with the remainder used predominantly for heat and power production. 

New permit could supress poultry innovation, warns NFU

Proposed changes to Environment Agency permit charges could limit poultry farmers’ ability to modernise, adapt and evolve their businesses, the NFU has warned. 

The changes will see fees for making an addition or change to a poultry business, such as increasing bird numbers, rise from £380 to between £4,010 and £7,218. The charge for applying for a permit in the first instance, which is required for a poultry business with over 40,000 birds, could rise to £8,000 from £3,750. 

NFU poultry chairman Duncan Priestner said: “It could see costs spiral wildly on British poultry farms and prevent our innovative industry from progressing further. Instead of investing in improving efficiency, productivity and new technology, we could see a lot of our costs tied up with inflated administrative costs.”

Neonicotinoids vote postponed

Arable farmers are still facing uncertainty about the future of neonicotinoids after the EU vote to ban the product was postponed.

Last month, Defra secretary Michael Gove announced that the UK government would support a full ban on neonicotinoids. However, when representatives from member states met this week to discuss proposals to extend the ban on flowering crops to all outdoor crops, no vote was taken. The vote has been rescheduled for early next year.