THE Basic Payment application window will be opening shortly for the 2021 scheme year, whilst the correct completion of the application form is one part of receiving your payment, a lot of work must also happen on the farm to ensure that the Cross compliance rules are met. DEFRA have recently presented figures on the number and types of breaches which are resulting in penalties been applied to payments in England. Craig Brough, Head of Land Agency at Hopes Auction, Wigton discusses some of these breaches and provides advice as to areas where claimants should take care.

The largest area of Cross compliance failure resulting in a penalty being applied to a claim is remains as Cattle identification and & Registration with 590 recorded breaches in England and has been the main issue area for several years. The rules surrounding this are contained within SMR 7 (Statutory Management Requirements) of the cross-compliance rules. The main areas of failure area around incorrect reporting of movements, notification of deaths and missing tags. It is vital that care is taken to ensure that movement records are kept up to date and recorded accurately on farm to avoid penalties at inspection.

In a change to last year’s order, issues surrounding nitrate vulnerable zones has become the second main area of breaches by percentage of inspections, this has however fallen from 306 breaches to 224 which whilst remaining an issue is pleasing to see that the failure rate is dropping. The main area is lack of proper records including risk maps for the whole holding not being present and annual spreading records not completed.

Last years second largest area of breach was failure to complete a TB test within the required time frames, this is an automatic penalty system and does not need to be identified through an inspection, it is therefore important to liaise with your vet in plenty of time to ensure the test is completed in time. This year there were 417 identified breaches of the TB regulations of which 62 cases resulted in a penalty greater than five percent of the Basic Payment.

Following on from the above theme Sheep and Goat identification records are the third most common area, again lack of movement records and reporting being the key issues.

The next two areas are buffer strips surrounding watercourses and boundaries. It is vital that buffer strips are maintained around the boundaries of fields, a two-meter strip must be maintained from the centre of a hedge or ditch (and 1 meter from the top of bank of a ditch). This strip must not be cultivated or have fertilisers and pesticides applied. It is vital that all machinery operates on farm whether employees or contractors understand the importance of these rules and the impact they can have on the financial receipts of the business. The advice has to be to work on the more cautious side and keep buffer strips slightly wider to ensure that a margin for error is allowed for. The pictures provided show the required buffer strip widths and where problems can occur in the case of the open ditch.

A further area which appears to be causing issues in certain areas is that of public rights of way crossing fields in crop, a minimum width of one meter must be kept clear of crop for a footpath and two meters for a bridleway. If an inspector finds the footpath or bridleway to be obstructed, then a penalty will be applied.

It is therefore important to consider what actions you require to undertake on farm to ensure that you remain compliant and not risk penalties on inspection which will continue through the 2021 year and will not change despite our departure from Europe. For further help and advice on these matters, the team at Hopes Auction would be delighted to assist you.