Every year between 1,000 and 2,000 farmers have their payments reduced due to failing to comply with cross-compliance rules, with minor issues detected on 2,000 more farms.

Figures from the Department of Agriculture detail which Standard Management Requirement (SMR) or Good Agriculture and Environmental Condition (GAEC) were most commonly breached.

SMR 7 - Cattle Identification and Registration

This is by far the most common area where farmers run afoul of the rules, with the Department detecting over 3,000 breaches last year of which 890 resulted in a sanction, down on 2018. The requirement centres on the need to maintain a traceability system for cattle.

The most common issues are tagging irregularities where cattle are missing tags or have not been tagged within 20 days of birth, failure to notify births, deaths, or movements, and passport discrepancies where cattle are missing passports.

SMR 8 - Sheep/Goat Identification and Registration

This requirement is similar to the traceability requirements for cattle although a fully electronic tagging system was introduced midway through 2019. In total there were 435 breaches last year, with just over half of those resulting in a penalty for the farmer involved.

Farmers are required to use the Animal Identification and Movement (AIM) system for cattle but there is no such system for sheep/goat farmers. The main problem areas are tagging irregularities, with sheep not tagged or tagged incorrectly (no EID) and failing to adequately maintain a flock registry.

SMR 1 - Protection of Water – Nitrates

The third most common issue identified by inspectors was in the area of water protection and preventing pollution caused by nitrates and phosphates. Almost 300 breaches were reported in 2019, with 70% of farmers receiving a financial penalty.

The areas of concern centre on the farmyard for the most part. Inspectors frequently identify failures to adequately collect livestock manure, soiled water, or silage effluent and to manage the storage facilities for them. Failures to minimise the generation of soiled water is also common.

Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition Standards (GAECs)

Across the seven GAECs that farmers must comply with, a total of 174 breaches were detected, up slightly on 2018. Almost all of these breaches resulted in a penalty (93%).

The majority of breaches were under GAEC 7, which requires farmers to retain landscape features such as hedgerows, and control invasive species. In total, 101 farmers had their payments penalised for failure to comply with the requirements.

GAEC 5 which requires farmers to protect soil from erosion was breached 52 times in 2019, almost double the number identified in 2018. The poaching of land is the biggest concern under this heading, with sacrifice paddocks and failing to move feeding points such as ring feeders or troughs often enough.