Production Based Subsidies

[D14]

We (Wales) certainly don't get headage (which I assume you meant by 'hedge') payments, and we didn't in England either. Just a set payment per acre in England for a good few years now, and Wales (at a lower rate on productive farms 'cos of being Fooked by the Uplands) coming into line by 2019.

Yes 'headage'. I know a guy who at the time of IACS based to SFP was running about 1500 acres of land and 1000 beef cattle. He got 'x' per acre for the land dependant on cropping and 'x' amount per animal. The x + x = y and 'y' is what he was then paid after the change to sfp and immediately sold all the cattle. Today he still gets around £500k/year even after the various reductions.

 

[Walterp]

Yes 'headage'. I know a guy who at the time of IACS based to SFP was running about 1500 acres of land and 1000 beef cattle. He got 'x' per acre for the land dependant on cropping and 'x' amount per animal. The x + x = y and 'y' is what he was then paid after the change to sfp and immediately sold all the cattle. Today he still gets around £500k/year even after the various reductions.

This is the 'dealers' scenario' - typical cattle dealers would buy cattle on the basis that they would receive the right to claim one, or both, BSPS claims (about £160/head) plus the SP of course, and then raise them on large tracts of rented ground. That was, and is, a normal business model.

One result of SFP is, as you observe, the ongoing SFP claims can be upwards of £250,000 pa.

The flip side (which you do not comment upon) is that the farmers who sold him those cattle believed they were getting an enhanced price for the unclaimed BSPS (which they were) and ended up not receiving an adequate element of 'historic' SFP because they had sold on those rights.

There are winners and losers in every change of regime.

 

[neilo]

Yes 'headage'. I know a guy who at the time of IACS based to SFP was running about 1500 acres of land and 1000 beef cattle. He got 'x' per acre for the land dependant on cropping and 'x' amount per animal. The x + x = y and 'y' is what he was then paid after the change to sfp and immediately sold all the cattle. Today he still gets around £500k/year even after the various reductions.

I don't know where you, or this farmer are, but in England that scenario disappeared several years ago, with the historic payment turning into a flat rate payment per acre. In Wales, we are in the process of that happening, with flat rate payments by 2019 (and not before time). I thought other devolved administrations were undergoing the same transition. IIRC it was an integral part of the last round of CAP reforms that everyone moves to a flat rate by 2019.