CARA Wales

Cattle Keepers –

It is critical that you notify BCMS of movements within 3 days. Any late notifications could immediately mean a 3% penalty across all schemes, i.e. Single Payment Scheme, Tir Gofal, Tir Cynnal, Tir Mynydd, Organic Farming Scheme.

This is the most common cross compliance failure in Wales. If you require assistance in notifying BCMS, please let us know. We can provide a service to notify CTS online on your behalf.

Soil Assessment –

In the recent wet weather a number of farmers have been penalised for causing soil damage or soil erosion and not recording it in their soil assessment books. If any damage occurs to your fields in wet weather, record it in your soil assessment book immediately, even if you hope to rectify the damage in the near future. This should protect you from any penalty if you were inspected.

With more of your Single Farm Payment being swallowed up by increasing modulation rates, many farmers are now looking to recuperate some of this shortfall by joining an agri-environment scheme. Various schemes have been available over the last ten years including the ESA scheme (Environmentally Sensitive Areas), Habitat Scheme, Tir Cymen, and Tir Gofal. The latest scheme introduced was the Tir Cynnal scheme which has proved very popular with a range of farmers.

The Tir Cynnal scheme is open to all farmers as long as 5% of their farm can be classified as habitat i.e. broadleaved woodland, scrub, unimproved grassland etc. If the farm has less than 5% habitat, then farmers can choose to create habitats on their farm. One popular way of creating the habitat area required has been to grow a crop of unsprayed roots, such as swedes or stubble turnips.

Application for membership of the Tir Cynnal scheme is made annually on the Single Application Form, and payment is made on the anniversary of the agreement. Payment rates are as follows:-

0-20 ha   £45/ha                      £900

20-50 ha £30/ha                      £1800

50-100 ha £25/ha                    £3050

100-200 ha £5/ha                    £3550

Over 200 ha £2/ha

As part of the Tir Cynnal scheme you will be required to complete three management plans for your farm. These include a resource management plan, soil management plan and manure management plan. These will need to be completed before the first anniversary of your agreement and then updated annually to reflect any changes in farming system. These plans have proven to be very useful on a farm level by pointing out areas that could be problematic under cross-compliance, as well as highlighting over use of fertiliser on some fields.

The soil management plan states that testing soils on a regular basis would provide an environmental and business benefit to many farmers. At CARA, we now offer a soil testing service at £10 per sample. We have recently seen an upsurge in farmers undertaking soil samples to assess the fertility of their soils. The latest results received show that in general most P & K indexes are sufficient, however the majority of fields need significant levels of lime. Unless the pH of these soils is corrected, then the response to fertiliser applications will be limited.