“We’ve discussed a lot of issues which are critical and it’s up to us now to take forward some of these decisions. Not just around future support, but how we ensure we have viable businesses and how we market our product.
“This part of the world has a marvellous story to tell, producing a very high-quality product and delivering so much on the back of that. It keeps business going and keeps people here.
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“Time is marching on, we are only a year away from March 2019. People feel very ill prepared. Whether or not that is Scottish Government’s fault we don’t know, but we need to be in there reminding them that we need to be making plans, moving forward and ensuring that markets and payment plans are being looked at right now.”
Paolo Berardelli
“There’s already been a huge decline in sheep numbers on the hill. It has been quite severe in the last 20 years, with support payments changing to area. We’re lucky in a sense in Glencoe that we have an SAC and a SSSI, so we’re being paid by SNH to keep the sheep on there to provide the grazing that habitat needs. A lot of farmers can’t access that. Post-Brexit, without payments we are not going to be there.
“From our point of view, of course we are producing lambs for consumption and yes we want to continue doing that. But our lambing percentage is only 60-70%. We farm in such marginal ground that the environmental benefit has to be paid for. If you make it financially viable, there will always be people wanting to do it.”
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Sybil MacPherson
“We’ve discussed a lot of issues which are critical and it’s up to us now to take forward some of these decisions. Not just around future support, but how we ensure we have viable businesses and how we market our product.
“This part of the world has a marvellous story to tell, producing a very high-quality product and delivering so much on the back of that. It keeps business going and keeps people here.
“Time is marching on, we are only a year away from March 2019. People feel very ill prepared. Whether or not that is Scottish Government’s fault we don’t know, but we need to be in there reminding them that we need to be making plans, moving forward and ensuring that markets and payment plans are being looked at right now.”
Paolo Berardelli
“There’s already been a huge decline in sheep numbers on the hill. It has been quite severe in the last 20 years, with support payments changing to area. We’re lucky in a sense in Glencoe that we have an SAC and a SSSI, so we’re being paid by SNH to keep the sheep on there to provide the grazing that habitat needs. A lot of farmers can’t access that. Post-Brexit, without payments we are not going to be there.
“From our point of view, of course we are producing lambs for consumption and yes we want to continue doing that. But our lambing percentage is only 60-70%. We farm in such marginal ground that the environmental benefit has to be paid for. If you make it financially viable, there will always be people wanting to do it.”
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