08/03/07
Farmers and landowners with insurance set-aside need to be aware
that they could fall foul of management restrictions on the land
for the first time this year, warns rural consultant Fisher German.
Watch how you treat uncropped land, warns Fisher German's Richard
Sanders.
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“In the past, you could safely allocate more land than the
minimum requirement and manage all of it as set-aside,” notes
the company’s farm consultancy partner Richard Sanders. “From
this year, the Rural Payments Agency will assume insurance set-aside
is managed under Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition
(GAEC) 12.”
Importantly this means the land cannot be topped between 1 March
and 31 July to avoid disturbing ground-nesting birds, while there
are no such restrictions on set-aside land. “If you want
to keep the land tidy without breaking cross-compliance rules,
it may be best to plant a crop or manage it as bare fallow or grass,” advises
Mr Sanders.
GAEC 12 conditions apply to any land, eligible for single payment
entitlements, that has been withdrawn from agricultural production
and is over and above the area necessary to meet your set-aside
obligation. The land can now be managed as bare fallow, provided
this is to control weeds, such as blackgrass, and appropriate measures
are taken to control soil erosion. Otherwise vegetation may not
be cut until 1 August, unless this is necessary to comply with
the 1959 Weeds Act (to control ragwort, for example).
For more information and general assistance on Single Payment or
other land management issues, call Richard Sanders or David Gibb
at Fisher German on 01858 411234, or e-mail richard.sanders@fishergerman.co.uk or david.gibb@fishergerman.co.uk.
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