Since I have been a vociferous critic of DARD’s online application procedure, then equally I have to give credit where credit is due.

I completed my online application form on Easter Saturday, and the whole thing, from sitting down at the computer through to printing off the four-page form, took about three quarters of an hour.

It looks as if the storm of grumblings from people like myself has been taken on board and, at last, we seem to have a genuinely farmer-friendly system in place.

In the past, we have been repeatedly told that the online application for the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) is simplified, easy to understand and user-friendly. If I was a bit suspicious of these claims, then I am delighted to say I’ve eaten my words, and can honestly say that this year’s procedure was almost a pleasure by comparison with previous attempts.

Admittedly and maybe crucially, I hadn’t too many alterations to perform from the previous year; just a change of code for land usage and one or two areas that seemed to fall into no clearly defined category. Perhaps DARD could invent a new code for those nondescript areas of woodland and marshy, unused farmland. How about TUP, standing for ‘‘thon useless place’’?

In the end, I used the code OT20, which may not be exactly correct, but seemed like the best bet under the circumstances. However, I’m not too worried, since these are areas that aren’t eligible for payment anyway and I don’t need them to claim my current BPS entitlements in full.

During the exercise, I spent at least half the time checking and cross-referencing the field data with my hardcopy maps and the most recent online version.

This version on the website was photographed on 9 September 2015, which explains why my arable fields look like the barley has forgotten to grow. Aerial pictures can be pretty unforgiving, can’t they?

The actual form-filling (including alterations to codes for four areas) probably took about 15 minutes. Presumably major changes to field boundaries would necessitate a bit more time, although I wasn’t going to venture too far unless it was completely necessary. Some of the mental scars from previous encounters with more unrefined DARD systems haven’t yet fully healed.

Waste

Also missing from the list of questions on the form were the perplexing ones about waste disposal (I always phoned a friend on that issue), and the crazy one about how many tyres you had on the top of your silo. Maybe at last, a degree of common sense is seeping into the civil service.

Having braced myself for a long and frustrating afternoon in front of the computer screen, I was feeling flushed with contentment at this successful mission. Then I noticed a helpline number, urging us to offer feedback on our experience. So I phoned the number (03002007848) and thought I would pour a bit of goodwill and charm on to whoever happened to answer. Of course, I had lost the run of myself, because it was Saturday; it was a public holiday, and no one was there to absorb my platitudes.

Given that so many farmers will complete their BPS applications during evenings and weekends, perhaps a sensible suggestion would be for a small team to man the helplines during out-of-office hours, since these are the times when they might be most appreciated. Or is that a step too far, and should we content ourselves with an application system that at least we can understand?