One in four farmers that received a cross-compliance inspection for cattle identification and registration in NI last year received a financial penalty to their claim for area-based schemes.

Figures obtained from DAERA by the Irish Farmers Journal show that the statutory management requirement (SMR) relating to cattle tagging and records of movements, births and deaths (SMR 7) continues to be the main problem area under cross compliance rules.

Of the 623 farmers inspected for SMR 7 last year, 161 or 25.8% were penalised. A breakdown shows that 48 farmers were deducted 1%, 71 lost 3%, 35 had 5% deducted, one farmer was fined between 15% and 20% and six lost over 20% of their payment.

The next most common breach during a cross-compliance inspection was SMR 8 for sheep and goat identification and registration, with 23, or 5.5%, of the 417 inspections resulting in a penalty. These rules relate to tagging and keeping a flock register. The most common level of penalty was a 5% deduction to claims (16 farmers).

Inspections for Good Agricultural and Environment Condition (GAEC) standard 7 also resulted in 5.5% of checks last year being penalised. These rules cover issues such as removing hedges, stonewalls and infilling open ditches without permission from DAERA.

Other controls

DAERA figures also show that although the department carried out cross-compliance inspections on 1,243 farm businesses last year, a significant number of breaches and subsequent fines did not originate from routine inspections. Instead, fines stemming from “other controls” are the result of breaches identified during other work, eg following a complaint from a member of the public.

There were 141 fines issued under SMR 1 which relates to the protection of land against nitrate pollution. SMR 1 breaches usually relate to inadequate slurry and effluent storage facilities, which often lead to pollution incidents in waterways.

There were also 75 farmers with claims deducted under SMR 13 which relates to animal welfare, plus 78 were penalised under SMR4 relating to food and feed law.

This covers issues such as late bovine TB testing and inadequate medicine and feed records.

Of the 78 who received penalties, 70 were deemed as being an intentional breach, as opposed to negligent, and therefore lost over 20% of their payment.

Land eligibility

In terms of land eligibility, inspections in NI last year resulted in 9.5% having a deduction made to their claim. In total, there were 1,212 land eligibility checks (mostly by remote-sensing) and these resulted in 335ha being deducted from claims. Overall, €64,344 of penalties were applied across 127 farms.

This is less than in the Republic of Ireland where 15% of land eligibility checks resulted in fines in 2016. This probably reflects the fact that NI has consistently been slightly ahead of the south in introducing new mapping controls and encouraging farmers to claim on only eligible land.