GLAS guide: Farmers want more time to prepare for GLAS
Mr Coveney said a later date will provide significantly more time for applications in the first tranche of GLAS.
But pushing basic payment and GLAS deadlines back to mid-June would make it harder to get payments to farmers by the usual date in mid-October. He said he wants at least a week between the GLAS deadline and the basic payment deadline, which may be at the end of May.
Up to this week, 9,119 applications had been created on the GLAS online application system.
ICMSA President John Comer has suggested a June 15 closing date for GLAS.
IFA Rural Development Chairman Flor McCarthy looked for an extension of the April 30 closing date to May 30, and said farmers also want a clear statement from the Minister that the GLAS scheme will open again in the autumn.
The Department of Agriculture has published the following Q&A guide to the new agri-environmental scheme for farmers and for GLAS planners (see www.agriculture.gov.ie/media/migration/farmingschemesandpayments/glas/FAQsGLAS11032015pdf.pdf for the full Q&A.
If a farmer declared rented land on his 2014 SPS application, will he be eligible to use his rented land as part of his 2015 GLAS application, or will it be similar to REPS/AEOS, that payment can only be drawn on leased land?
The online system will bring in all parcels claimed on the 2014 BPS (owned, leased and rented). It is up to the farmer to ensure he has control of the rented parcels for the duration of the GLAS contract.
Where he has already lost a parcel in 2015, or knows he will not have it for the duration of the GLAS contract, the advisor can remove this parcel from the online application system.
Under the ‘protection of watercourses from bovines’, if there is already a stock proof fence in place (two strands of wire), will a farmer be allowed to put this already fenced watercourse into his GLAS application and seek payment on it?
Yes, the payment is to maintain the fence for the duration of the contract; however, all watercourses on the holding must be fenced, and the fence must be 1.5 metres out from the top of the bank.
If the watercourse is internal, with the applicant’s land touching both sides, will they be paid the €1.50 on each side?
If the parcels are grassland, and the person has bovines, then, yes, they will be paid for both sides.
Will there be a requirement to spread lime, under the Nutrient Management Plan for GLAS?
There will be no requirement to spread lime, under the NMP.
I have an enquiry from a farmer who is in the Organic Scheme and therefore gets priority entry into GLAS. He is a member of both the Connemara Breed society and the Dexter Society since 2012. While he has kept Connemara ponies, he has not had Dexters up to this point. He would like to keep Dexters, but will he get paid for them in GLAS, given that he has not kept them up to this point?
The requirement for the rare breeds action in GLAS, is that the applicant was a member of the relevant society in 2012 and/or 2013, and continues that membership for the duration of their contract and has animals of that breed registered to him for that time.
Applicants may choose any or all of the breed societies they are members of, and submit evidence of their membership with their application.
Payments will be made in arrears based on the monthly average livestock units of owned registered animals over the previous recording year. Passports and pedigree certificates must be in the participant’s own name.
If the watercourse runs in and outside the LPIS boundary, can you only measure watercourses that are present within and on the LPIS parcel in question?
Once the farmer takes this action, he must map-record the length of all watercourses on his holding, fence them irrespective of which parcel they are in — that is, it is not parcel specific.
Can you view tier 1 and tier 2 watercourses anywhere, without having to get the potential client uploaded on the GLAS mapping system. Does the high status watercourses on the EPA website give you both tier 1 and tier 2?
The data for high status and vulnerable watercourses has been provided to us by the EPA. The definitive watercourses are those that appear on a client’s potential application.
The River Status Information on the EPA is a guide.
Can we make up the €7,000 if an applicant has 58ha of commonage; if an applicant has 19ha of Hen Harrier; or if an applicant has 13.5ha of Hen Harrier and 10 rare breeds. If an applicant has 13.5ha of Hen Harrier, can we make up to the additional €2,000 by doing standard actions?
A person may only qualify for GLAS+ if they have two or more PEAs (priority environmental assets), for example, commonage and rare breeds, or if they have sufficient land area designated for one or more of the listed bird species.
