News

A farmer from Devon whose cattle were culled due to bovine TB and was paid compensation on the basis of Defra's table valuations system and who as a result felt that his cattle were vastly under-valued has been granted permission to bring a Judicial Review of the system backed by the NFU. It is expected that the case will be heard in the High Court later in 2007. Please see the Farmers Guardian report for further information....

With effect from 6th April 2007, the rules governing cattle identification and tracing have been changed in England, Wales and Scotland. The new Cattle Indentification Regulations 2007 see two main changes to former procedures: Temporary calf passports - these have been abolished which means that full passports are required for all cattle before they are moved from their holding of birth. Late passport application procedure - if an application has not been submitted within the stipulated 27...

David Miliband presented a written statement to the House of Commons today (29th March) in which he announced the rates of voluntary modulation to be applied to the Single Payment Scheme from 2007 onwards as well as plans for national co-financing to voluntary modulation to support the effective delivery of agri-environment schemes, particularly Environmental Stewardship, under Axis 2 of the Rural Development Regulation. The rates of voluntary modulation are to be: 2007 - 12% 2008 - 13% 2009...

The RPA has released the latest figures regarding 2006 Single Payment Scheme payments made as at 21st March 2007: a total of 95,737 claimants have received a payment (partial or full) out of the total number of claimants which is approximately 109,000. 57.84% have received a full payment (which equates to approximately 63,000 claimants) and 29.99% have received a partial payment and are awaiting a top-up to full payment (some 32,689 claimants) total value of payments made is £1,056.36...

With effect from 1st March 2007, pre-movement testing for bovine TB has been extended in England and Wales to include movements of animals over 42 days old (6 weeks) from a one or two yearly tested herd. Such cattle must have tested negative to a TB test within 60 days before the movement. To view Defra's news release, please click here.

David Miliband has this morning (22nd February) presented a written statement to the House of Commons giving an update on full and partial 2006 SPS payments made to date. In addition to the 40,697 full payments made prior to the commencement of the partial payments, 40,270 partial payments have now been made to 2006 SPS claimants which equates to a total of £919.13 million paid (59% of estimated total fund) to 83,967 (77%) claimaints.Further partial payments are to be made to small number of...

The RPA have released figures (as at 31st January) of how many full 2006 SPS payments have been made to farmers. A total of 21,940 full payments have been made during the second half of January with a value of £201 million. To view the RPA's press release, please click here.