Stephen Cadogan: Ineligibility follows forced destocking on the uplands

Forced destocking of hill farms in the late 1990s still comes back to haunt landowners.

Commonage framework plans tied them to reduced stocking rates in subsequent schemes such as REPS and AEOS, and obliged them to remove cattle from commonages from November to May.

Twenty year later, destocking is one of the reasons why landowners get notifications stating, “Where commonage may seem to be eligible, but not the subject of a farming activity, it will be deemed ineligible for payment. This means that [the] area eligible for payment (known as the reference area) of any such commonage will be reduced to take account of the level of inactivity, for the purpose of drawing down payment.”