Online system for manure exports

A new online system for submitting records of manure exports to the NI Environment Agency (NIEA) is to be introduced in January 2018.

Under the new Nitrates Action Programme for 2015 to 2018, farmers must submit records of manure exports for the previous calendar year to NIEA by midnight on 31 January. The new system will go live on 1 January 2018 and will be available at www2.dardni.gov.uk/exportmanurecalculator

DAERA has also confirmed that an online system will also be launched in March 2018 for submission of fertiliser accounts and manure export records for derogated farms operating above the limit of 170kg of manure N per hectare.

History of dairy industry in Ulster

A newly published book written by George Chambers (now deceased) and Ian McDougall, both former employees of the Milk Marketing Board, is now available for sale from the Ulster Historical Foundation, or at www.booksireland.org.uk, at a cost of £19.99.

It charts the development of dairying in Ulster from early human settlement through to the first part of the twentieth century, and covers the development of the Dairy Co-operative movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Dunbia sends out letter to lamb suppliers

Dunbia has written to lamb suppliers about incomplete SG2 sheep movement documents being submitted with livestock for slaughter.

A common problem is that one of the two Food Chain Information (FCI) boxes are not being ticked by flock-keepers. Ticking the first FCI box indicates that the animals meet FCI statements printed on the back of the form.

The transporter section must also be completed and include the registration of the vehicle taking the sheep to the plant. Additional information is then needed if the journey is over 40 miles.

Tag numbers

Although individual tag numbers do not have to be recorded if sheep are going to a central point of recording, Dunbia encourages writing in tag numbers, if possible, to allow faster processing of sheep in the lairage.

Farm Quality Assurance Scheme lambs must also be accompanied with a red verification sheet available from the LMC.

HMRC loses VAT case

An appeal by the HMRC on the rights of farmers to reclaim VAT on the purchase of basic payment scheme entitlements has been rejected in a case taken to the Court of Session in Scotland.

HMRC argued that the VAT incurred on the purchase of entitlements had a direct and immediate link to the subsidies which the taxpayer earned as a result.

As the resulting subsidies are outside the scope of VAT, HMRC argued that VAT on the purchase of entitlements was irrecoverable as it did not directly relate to any sales activity subject to VAT.

The court rejected those arguments, relying on a line of cases decided by the European Court of Justice.

Taxable activities

The key issue was that the farmer involved in the case (Frank Smart and son) had invested the income from subsidies in taxable farming activities.

According to Glyn Edwards, VAT director at MHA MacIntyre Hudson, if the HMRC had succeeded, it could have resulted in a large number of farms facing assessments from the VAT office.