CAP decisions will change the landscape of Ireland
The level of payments is becoming disconnected from the original reference years. By 2019, no single member state will be receiving less than 75% of the EU average payment.
Within a member state or region, financial-aid divergence between holdings will be reduced.
In per-hectare terms, no holding will get less than 60% of the average aid. So, farmers who currently receive no single farm payment (SFP), or a low SFP, will benefit from increased support.
Young farmers will be supported with a compulsory 25% supplement to their single farm payments for the first five years.
In greening, a farmer may receive a payment per hectare for respecting agricultural practices beneficial to the climate and the environment.
These practices include:
* maintaining permanent grassland.
* cultivation of at least two crops, where a farmer’s arable land exceeds 10 hectares, and at least three crops, where arable land exceeds 30 hectares.
* maintaining an “ecological focus area” of at least 5% of the arable area of the holding, for farms with an area larger than 15 hectares (excluding permanent grassland, including areas such as field margins, hedges, trees and buffer areas).
The reform includes flat-rate SFP reductions, such as a 2% cut across-the-board to fund young, trained-farmer measures, and a reduction in high payments per hectare.
On coupling, member states will have the option of providing limited amounts of “coupled” payments (payment linked to a product). This is limited to 8% of the national envelope, where a member state provides coupled support, and up to 13% if the coupled support is higher than 5%.
For Ireland, a big question will be whether, under this option, measures will be introduced to support suckler and sheep farmers by creating new supports coupled to productions.
The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association (ICSA) has argued that a decoupled payment is the best system of support for suckler and beef farmers.
In a former era, of coupled payments, suckler and beef farmers received direct payments, but coupled with production for a market that was often oversupplied — and they suffered from low prices, as a result.
ICSA says that improvements in cattle prices are a result of scarcity and improved market conditions, which would have been much less likely under a system of coupled payments.
In the absence of additional supports for Ireland’s 30,000 suckler farmers, with clarity on how single farm payments are to be structured, going forward to 2019, it is time for suckler farmers to consider whether to continue or change enterprise.
Most suckler farms are running at a loss, with only the most efficient generating a profit before EU support is factored in.
On your own farm, it’s easy to assess whether you are profiting from your suckler enterprise.
Do you keep your single farm payment cheque for your own personal benefit (drawings, living costs etc) or plough it back in to your farming operations?
Teagasc data suggests the returns for single-suckling enterprises averaged a negative €115 per cow in 2011. In other words, most suckler farmers are losing money before they receive their single farm payment or other supports. Since 2011, the suckler-cow welfare scheme has been suspended.
Participation in, and support from, the AOES is much less than under REPS.
And disadvantaged-area cuts have also taken effect, which suggests that returns per cow may have fallen, even despite the increase in cattle prices.
Imports of beef from South America are recovering, and that may temper any further increase in beef prices at the factories.
With the re-coupling option set to become available, should Ireland support its non-profitable suckler herd, or support suckler farmers to transition to other enterprises, such as heifer rearing or fodder production as part of the expected expansion of dairy farming?
These decisions will, literally, change the landscape of Ireland’s farms over the next seven years, and will impact thousands of Irish farmers.
Kieran Coughlan,
Belgooly, Co Cork
(086-8678296)
