Poor record keeping costs farmers

Too many farmers are receiving reduced Single Payment Scheme payments, the RPA said.

Its figures show that poor record keeping continues to be the major factor in cross compliance breaches and it cost farmers £2.33 million in reductions to their Single Payment Scheme (SPS) payments last year.

Paul Caldwell, the RPA’s operations director, said: “RPA is currently working very hard to prepare for the new CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) but we are also committed to delivering our usual high quality routine services.

“Release of these figures is just one of the ways that we help farmers and the agricultural industry as part of our ongoing commitment to support rural economies.

“The aim is to make farmers aware of the most common errors to help them to avoid future penalties and keep more of their vital SPS funds.

“The data clearly shows that, similar to 2012, failure to keep adequate records was a major cause of breaches across a number of cross compliance requirements.”

The figures show there were 2,972 failures last year. Because of poor performance on soil protection and nitrate vulnerable zones in 2012, the Agency was tasked under EU rules with carrying out extra inspections in those areas last year. These additional inspections generated 711 of the total breaches recorded.

As in 2012, cattle keepers attracted the highest number breaches (810) for failing to report deaths and movements; incorrect reporting of movements and animals being found without passports.

Failure to keep accurate and up to date records, leaving temporary field heaps in position for more than 12 months or too close to water courses meant Nitrate Vulnerable Zone breaches were the second most common failing at 562, with 328 of them as a result of the extra inspections.

Soil Protection Review issues came a close third, producing 535 failures - 383 of these generated by the additional inspections.

Issues with animal medicine and mortality records saw a rise from 95 breaches in 2012 to 148 last year.