Last week’s management notes touched on temporary grazing agreements. As expected, there is a high level of interest in the practice at an earlier stage this year and this has given rise to a number of follow-on queries.
A number of these relate to the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) with farmers keen to ensure they remain compliant and do not put their payment at risk.
The terms and conditions of the ANC scheme clearly state that to be eligible for payment the land must be available to the farmer who enters it on their Basic Payment Scheme application for the entire calendar year (11-month conacre agreements are also eligible).
As such, a farmer cannot rent out part of their lands to another farmer for a period of time as they are relinquishing control and therefore not compliant with the terms and conditions.
Short-term grazing agreements – where the person in charge of the land (has entered it on their BPS for 2020) takes in sheep for temporary grazing and remains in control of the land at all times – do not conflict with the terms and conditions of the scheme and are thereby allowable.
It is worth noting that, in such a scenario, the sheep do not contribute to the stocking rate calculations of the farm offering the grazing as there is no change in ownership.
There have also been a couple of queries where farmers availing of the grazing are highly stocked and would like to use the temporary grazing agreement to reduce their organic nitrogen output.
There are two scenarios at play here. Where sheep have been moved to a holding where livestock are present and normal identification procedures apply (completion of dispatch documents and submission to Regional Veterinary Office – RVO) then adjustments will apply to both holdings to take account of the movement.
Where no official movement documentation is required to be submitted to the RVO, credit can still be obtained by completing the form Record 4: Notification of Temporary Movement of Cattle or Sheep, and sending it to the Nitrates Section, Department of Agriculture, Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford.
A question has also cropped up as to how onward movements from the farm offering the grazing are handled if notification of the movement has been submitted to the Department RVOs.
In answering this question, it is worth recapping on the three common types of movements and the regulations that apply.
Movement to a farm with no animals: in this case, animals can be moved to and from the holding without notifying the Department. Movement to a farm with animals present: the Department must be notified but as there is no change of ownership, the onus lies with the owner of the sheep. Send the pink copy of the dispatch document to your local RVO. To notify the RVO of the return of animals, submit the white copy of the dispatch clearly marked “return from temporary grazing”. For onward movements to a mart/factory/abattoir and not back to the holding from which animals were moved, a new dispatch document will need to be completed and accompany the sheep. The Department will not need to be notified in such cases as these movements will be recorded at these premises. Where the movement involves only part of the batch of sheep on the temporary grazing, then these numbers can be struck off the white copy of the dispatch document when notifying of the return of movement.
Movement to a land parcel where no animals are present: in such circumstances, sheep can be moved to the separate land parcel without notifying the Department.
Last week’s management notes touched on temporary grazing agreements. As expected, there is a high level of interest in the practice at an earlier stage this year and this has given rise to a number of follow-on queries.
A number of these relate to the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) with farmers keen to ensure they remain compliant and do not put their payment at risk.
The terms and conditions of the ANC scheme clearly state that to be eligible for payment the land must be available to the farmer who enters it on their Basic Payment Scheme application for the entire calendar year (11-month conacre agreements are also eligible).
As such, a farmer cannot rent out part of their lands to another farmer for a period of time as they are relinquishing control and therefore not compliant with the terms and conditions.
Short-term grazing agreements – where the person in charge of the land (has entered it on their BPS for 2020) takes in sheep for temporary grazing and remains in control of the land at all times – do not conflict with the terms and conditions of the scheme and are thereby allowable.
It is worth noting that, in such a scenario, the sheep do not contribute to the stocking rate calculations of the farm offering the grazing as there is no change in ownership.
There have also been a couple of queries where farmers availing of the grazing are highly stocked and would like to use the temporary grazing agreement to reduce their organic nitrogen output.
There are two scenarios at play here. Where sheep have been moved to a holding where livestock are present and normal identification procedures apply (completion of dispatch documents and submission to Regional Veterinary Office – RVO) then adjustments will apply to both holdings to take account of the movement.
Where no official movement documentation is required to be submitted to the RVO, credit can still be obtained by completing the form Record 4: Notification of Temporary Movement of Cattle or Sheep, and sending it to the Nitrates Section, Department of Agriculture, Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford.
A question has also cropped up as to how onward movements from the farm offering the grazing are handled if notification of the movement has been submitted to the Department RVOs.
In answering this question, it is worth recapping on the three common types of movements and the regulations that apply.
Movement to a farm with no animals: in this case, animals can be moved to and from the holding without notifying the Department. Movement to a farm with animals present: the Department must be notified but as there is no change of ownership, the onus lies with the owner of the sheep. Send the pink copy of the dispatch document to your local RVO. To notify the RVO of the return of animals, submit the white copy of the dispatch clearly marked “return from temporary grazing”. For onward movements to a mart/factory/abattoir and not back to the holding from which animals were moved, a new dispatch document will need to be completed and accompany the sheep. The Department will not need to be notified in such cases as these movements will be recorded at these premises. Where the movement involves only part of the batch of sheep on the temporary grazing, then these numbers can be struck off the white copy of the dispatch document when notifying of the return of movement.
Movement to a land parcel where no animals are present: in such circumstances, sheep can be moved to the separate land parcel without notifying the Department. 
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