Cattle farmer first big casualty of EU plans to reform income support

ONE of the largest-scale cattle farmers in the country is to lose 20% of the land which he farms when a rental lease is up at the start of next year.

He is one of the highest profile casualties of a land grab sparked by EU proposals to re-start the EU’s farm income support scheme from a clean sheet in 2014.

The south-east-based farmer, who prefers to remain nameless, had been renting 50 of his 250 acres of grassland for the past decade, but the landowner told him the lease will not be renewed.