Payment cuts are putting farmers at disadvantage

The recent cuts to Single Farm Payments (SFP) have come as a big blow to thousands of farmers, and especially here in West Cork where you have many farmers already marginalised as a consequence of the disadvantaged land that makes up many of the holdings.

Following on from the atrocious weather conditions from Jul 2012 to April of this year and the resulting serious fodder shortage crisis where farmers had to spend thousands of euros on ration feeds to keep their animals alive, this is now a real kick in the teeth to them approaching the Christmas season.

The first many farmers heard about these cuts was when their cheques came in the post greatly reduced in recent weeks. There was no written communication, the cuts were arbitrarily implemented without prior warning or consultation. You also have the anomaly of no account being taken of under claims on individual parcels of land against over claims on other parcels by the same farmer.