The single most important job – completing and sending off the Basic Payment Scheme form, has now been done.

We have never got it done as early or quickly. I cannot take the credit for it myself, as a long-suffering, obliging friend uses his up-to-date PC to check that the online return meets all the criteria.

With the tillage enterprise, I must conform to the three-crop rule and also have enough environmental focus area to meet the 5% requirement and, of course, the entitlements must be in the name that coincides with the application form and the Department’s files.

Hedgerows

With beans no longer eligible to be counted as part of the environmental focus area, I was nervous that we would have difficulty but, as we have normal Irish hedgerows and ditches throughout the farm, we easily met the 5% condition. In Ireland, we take our hedges for granted but at the Teagasc sustainability day it really came home to me just how valuable for wildlife and biodiversity they are.

Just drive through East Anglia, or across the endless grain plains of northern France and you realise how environmentally friendly the Irish field structure is. The greening payment is fully deserved!

Preparing to spread nitrogen

We are preparing to put out our main split of nitrogen on the wheat and barley but, in the meantime, we have a full herd test on all the cattle, a job I dread as it means disturbing the most forward bulls who are just a few weeks away from slaughter. That said, I regard the Department’s wildlife control programme as extremely effective – but then, we are well away from the deer problem of Wicklow. Some years ago, I was locked up for over 10 years, but now, a reactor is highly unusual. Let’s hope I am not proved wrong when the cattle are read at the end of the week.

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