Sheep welfare funding

[glasshouse]

Landlords are friends to tenants though & give many who could not afford to buy land the chance to farm.

I'm very grateful to my landlord & think he has had a raw deal.

Pay him more rent then

 

[mar]

Too many vested interests?

That is probably part of it
The biggest problem is how do you define what a farmer is and what an armchair farmer is.
There is a guy beside me that is an armchair farmer but on paper is a farmer, he owns about 20 acres or 8 hectares (most farms in the west of Ireland are small)
Two local farmers take two cuts of it every year, one of them grazes lambs on the bit he cuts, the other just takes two cuts, one cut in mid July and the second in October.
As this is a disadvantaged area, high rainfall, poor quality land, he qualifies for ANC payment (Areas of Natural Constraint) To claim the payment of 148 euro a Hectare you need to have at least 0.15 livestock units per hectare, the only stock he has is two donkeys and he buys a couple of cattle from one of the guys that cuts the silage, he buys them of him and sells them back again after a few months but on paper only.
He collects the ANC money, the money from selling the silage, and I think he is in an environmental scheme as well, he is a farmer but not an active farmer.
The department knows it's going on but it is very hard to come up with rules that will stop it happening

Map: 10,500 ‘armchair’ farmers claiming €32m in payments

There are Basic Payment Scheme payments made to farmers who aren’t currently “showing any obvious farming activity on their land" and will have to take action for the next CAP.

www.farmersjournal.ie

 

[glasshouse]

That is probably part of it
The biggest problem is how do you define what a farmer is and what an armchair farmer is.
There is a guy beside me that is an armchair farmer but on paper is a farmer, he owns about 20 acres or 8 hectares (most farms in the west of Ireland are small)
Two local farmers take two cuts of it every year, one of them grazes lambs on the bit he cuts, the other just takes two cuts, one cut in mid July and the second in October.
As this is a disadvantaged area, high rainfall, poor quality land, he qualifies for ANC payment (Areas of Natural Constraint) To claim the payment of 148 euro a Hectare you need to have at least 0.15 livestock units per hectare, the only stock he has is two donkeys and he buys a couple of cattle from one of the guys that cuts the silage, he buys them of him and sells them back again after a few months but on paper only.
He collects the ANC money, the money from selling the silage, and I think he is in an environmental scheme as well, he is a farmer but not an active farmer.
The department knows it's going on but it is very hard to come up with rules that will stop it happening

Map: 10,500 ‘armchair’ farmers claiming €32m in payments

There are Basic Payment Scheme payments made to farmers who aren’t currently “showing any obvious farming activity on their land" and will have to take action for the next CAP.

www.farmersjournal.ie

8 hectares is hardly a problem
Its the 800 ha ones who are

 

[unlacedgecko]

8 hectares is hardly a problem
Its the 800 ha ones who are

What does scale have to do with principle? If it's acceptable at 8ha then it's acceptable at 8,000ha.

 

[glasshouse]

What does scale have to do with principle? If it's acceptable at 8ha then it's acceptable at 8,000ha.

Scale has everything to do with it
The 8 ha retired farmer is not making anyone homeless and letting the houses fall down.
The CAP should slways have been tapered to stop landgrabbing but our nfu and cla stopped it