Satellites pinpoint rushes to ensure land is farmed

The Department of Agriculture is taking up to 6,000 satellite images per year of farmers’ land to see if fields are being properly farmed.

If there is rush cover, the farmer is not eligible for a single farm payment for the land. Farm payments are based more and more on strictly “working” farmland — lands completely covered with rock and furze and rushes are not eligible unless they are cleared.

A senior official said land was not being deducted for rushes where cows were grazing grass, but only where the land was obviously not being farmed and rushes had completely taken over.