New Acres scheme

I got into the pilot REAP scheme and to be honest it’s some of the handiest money you’ll make. Very little needed to be done with the fields that you put into it provided they are low input pasture and you’re not ploughing slurry and fertiliser on them fields. Basically pick the fields that you have that you can’t farm intensively (wet fields/boggy ground/stoney ground etc etc).

with this new scheme some of the conditions to meet to get the payments are so simple. Use LESS slurry spreading, plant a hedge or a bunch of trees, stick up a 1/2/3metre fence in from your hedge and leave it up for the summer months to let birds/animals nest. Sow some wild bird cover or strips in a field for the winter and you get more money,

I guess lads like me with poor/average can make great use of these schemes whereas your reseeded/intensive farms will find it fairly difficult to pull a good payment

I’m the same Brian - little stock, no fertiliser…

I’d be afraid of the tier 1 thing as well - I think it will be over subscribed, as lots of people have gone down the extensive, little fertiliser route and see this as an ‘easy win’

I’ll be annoyed if I don’t get in, the few bob I make from the farm, you could say the GLAS payment accounts for a lot of it… No GLAS/ACRES payment would be a big sting for me… 🙁

I was iffy about extending the GLAS scheme again this year but we did. However I doubt we will be joining the new ACRES scheme and it's not to do with going more intensive but more to do with taking back control on how we farm our land - the way we want too. We don't use artificial fertilizer except for establishing the GLAS wild bird cover.

I did the AETS course last week your planner will score the lipp in yr 1 3 and 5. Most of the weeds i have are negatively marked. It would suit a big farm being extensively farmed if the suitable weeds/plants were present.

EU auditors don’t seem to have a problem with armchair farmers getting tens of thousands of euros every year based on what they did twenty years ago, funny that isn’t it, any amount of money for old rope there.

Is the course a must do or good to have?

Id agree, surely thistles etc would be good for pollinators etc....flowering plants ??????

You would think if its called low input pasture it should be let it grow the way it does naturally not just an artificial selection.....if you get negatively marked on plants that naturally grow yhere does that not just incentivise spraying them....which removes a plant those insects use???

Is there ever any justification for negative scoring of those plants? .... do farm organisations ever ask for a scientific underpinning for these scoring systems...

Not compulsory no, my planner advised to do it, get payed for the day as well so not too bad i suppose.

Thats a separate issue - in any case you would want to take it up with successive governments and the main farming orgs who continue to staunchly oppose changes in that area. I would also point out that CAP has been moving away from a production subs based payment for nearly 30 years now

Good to have. You get 156 euro whether you join scheme or not.

Thanks for the invite, have we a taxi

For those who say they are not joining. Will we now not need to be in an environmental scheme to hold onto our full payments in the new cap?

I want the money but will it be worth the hassle at all?

I'm not going out spot spraying thistles/docks ffs.....bad for my back, wallet, morale you name it.....the fact that I suspect its nonsense makes it harder to swallow....

If it can be scientifically justified I'd have less of a problem but for that kind of bull I nearly think I'd rather have more control on my working time on my property that I paid through the nose for .....it feels more and more like you are a slave at the whims of jobsworths................and the money on offer ain't great ........ they should at least be made justify what they are at and have it held up to some scrutiny rather than seemingly making stuff up as they go along to reduce payments but still remove any autonomy......there's too much inertia too.....every mam and his dog knows calendar farming is the height of nonsense but there it is every year sitting in the corner waiting to **** you over..

There's too much jnterference to our longterm detriment the way things are going.....im beginning to think we would be better off not taking the money and exerting a little more influence on our businesses rather thsn have industry groups/various vested interests and people it wont affect materially make decisions for us............

Don’t say he convinced you

No, they’re too quiet for my liking, i’ll stick to the Limousins and Salers for now🤔

Is letting it go not kind of the point🤔..low input pasture..biodiversity and all that

I can top in late late summer after all the auld biodiversity has had its wicked way with each other in the great orgy of spring/summer but they want to incentivise a lad going out with a knapsack......its cracked if you ask me.

I have one small place that has been neglected......and If I neglect it anymore you'll be talking about a sea of ragworth, thistles, docks nettles.......it hasn't gotten nitrogen since I can remember ....

But I tidy it up by topping and pulling the ragworth, would be interesting to get soil tested

Thistles will grow naturally on dry ground & if present in a intensive farm, they will be sprayed if a problem in number's. Nettles are manure reliant.no one should be attempting to justify such nonsense of thistles present in pasture for lipp being regarded as a negative indicator.

Has anyone looked their eligibility on Dafm, see we’re outside of a marked area, does that mean we can’t get in?

Oh you are probably right......but if you value your time and the hassle and how much of it you will have when they screw you out of it with marking/scoring schemes after you've put in time/effort investment complying

That's what has me wondering if it will be worth it this time.....some of the proposed stuff goes agsinst the science afaics.....There's a breakdown in trust when it comes to me given some of the stuff that happened in the past with bad advice etc when I was taking over from my father......

Added to that is a malicious fantasy that if lot opted out instead of rushing headlong in .... powers that be might be forced to come back to the table with a better offer.....or at least scientific justification for what they are at....answers to questions about broader implications/other industries etc

My gut tells me we should be attempting to have a little more control on our destinies than giving it away but I suppose I know in the end I'll be forced to follow the herd or lose out......you would wonder though.

Two types of entry , general and co-operation, marked areas are the latter ( I'm in this ) so you are in first one. On IFJ payment rates shown - planting trees around farmyard looks might suit some. ( over2k for 0.5ha max -- 0.18 ha minimum )

Chatting to my ag advisor about this recently...he doesnt know if he will do this scheme....seems to be alot of bullshìt in it....he doesnt fancy going around playing the bad cop...marking down farmers scores etc....

Dont blame him...