By the time you read this, the Department will have unveiled its Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) rebuild. On Wednesday night, officials were to provide an overview of the new improved mapping system for farmland, complete with examples of “transformed parcels”.

RTÉ’s Operation Transformation is synonymous with healthy habits and positive thinking, something the beleaguered drystock sector could do with. Cattle and sheep farmers depend on direct payments for pretty much their entire income, and the payments depend on accurate mapping.

So, is this good news? It’s hard to blame farmers for initially being wary. The last remapping exercise saw penalties imposed, in some cases retrospectively.

There is also the potential issue of ineligible areas within fields

Thousands of farmers had their payments delayed as chaos reigned around the inputting, cross-checking, and reconciliation of the new mapped areas into the BPS system.

It would be against natural justice for a farmer to lose out retrospectively in any way because the area being mapped was reduced by more sophisticated technology. This is especially true as the area being applied on by farmers is usually based on the area estimated by the Department previously.

There is also the potential issue of ineligible areas within fields.

Nobody is saying farmers should receive payment for ineligible areas, but there can be mixed messages.

A tree in a grass field should be a positive, without any negative connotations for maintaining its presence.

Environment

On the one hand, farmers are being urged to maintain habitats and enhance the environment, and on the other, they are warned that land deemed unusable will be deducted.

In fairness to the Department, it in turn is under pressure from the bean counters in Brussels – the auditors.

How many of them have ever stood in a farmyard or field I wonder?

There is one thing that many farmers will wonder about this new improving mapping technology.

At what point will maps reflect not just the two-dimensional flat-plan image of a field, but the reality of the three-dimensional profile that land has, with all its contours.

In a system where a farmer’s payment can be delayed by a query over an area discrepancy as small as 0.01 of a hectare, (that’s 10m2 folks), this could make a massive difference to the area of a farm.

Maybe not in the plains of Kildare, but certainly among the drumlins of Monaghan or the rolling hills of Donegal or Kerry, where it could easily add as much as 25% extra.

Now that would be something to welcome.