The Hebridean Winter Event 2010
We have a date for the Winter event of 6th/7th Feb 2010 with its Location being Malpas, Cheshire. It will be jointly hosted by Helen Arthan and Cheshire Wildlife Trust. Please send your views in to the secretary on any particular topic you would like to see covered. So far, will provisionally include card-grading and 4H assessment, plus a farm walk on the WT's home farm at Bickley.
Single Payment Scheme Update
The majority of small-scale Single Payment claimants in England will retain their Single Payments, after Defra agreed to set the new claim threshold at just one hectare.
The increase from the current threshold of 0.3ha will see an estimated 1,500 small claimants excluded from the 2010 SPS, with the loss of payments worth just over 800,000.
But Defra has resisted setting a much bigger minimum threshold of 5ha, which would have resulted in around 17,000 claimants losing out on payments worth nearly £13 million.
Defra has also announced that it will not seek to introduce an objective farmer test requiring claimants to prove they are farmers and that it will integrate previously coupled protein crop and nut payments into the SPS from 2012, the latest possible date.
Announcing the decision, Farming Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said: “By setting the minimum claim size at one hectare, the lowest area allowed by the EU, we have minimised the amount of change for farmers and ensured that as many farmers as possible will be able to claim”.
He made it clear the decision was also based partly on a desire to keep as many farmers under cross-compliance requirements as possible.
“Ultimately, we want to see more reform of the CAP, so that it rewards farmers for the public benefits they provide. This includes looking after the environment, something which the market alone cannot reward”, he said.
The announcement represents a victory for the HSS which lobbied for this outcome.
Download a copy of the letter sent by your chairman to DEFRA by clicking here
Major victory on EID could save sheep farmers millions
EUROPEAN veterinary experts have agreed key changes to the rules on EID which will allow electronic tags to be read at marts and abattoirs rather than on-farm, saving the UK sheep industry up to £18 million a year. The change to the rules will mean the majority of farmers will not have to invest in tag reading equipment, but will instead allow them to have tags read at ‘critical control points’ such as marts and abattoirs. Welcome to the Farmers Guardian Website
NSA response to Defra's supplementary consultation on identification and registration
New Websites to visit...check them out now!
The Hebridean Sheep Society has made some new web links to a range of new websites which you may find interesting...firstly to one of our members Richard and Barbara Barker who own the Fowlescombe Farm see their farm and the range of rare breed animal they have including some fabulous photographs of the Hebridean Sheep Societies Summer Symposium 2008!!...also a link to The Thistle and Broom website which sell a wealth of Scottish merchandise absolutely fantastic..........so click here to check out these and other Hebridean related websites.....Hebridean Sheep related Websites
Hebridean Sheep Wool Assessment 2009
Juliet Johnson has kindly agreed to undertake some work on comparison of fleeces from 2-horned and 4-horned Hebrideans. The purpose of this study is to ascertain any significant differences that may exist between 2-horn and multi-horned examples, to ascertain any changes as a result of more recent breeding decisions when compared to samples from older animals, and over the longer term to investigate changes in fleece type and quality throughout the life of individuals..........so click here for more details.....Hebridean Sheep Wool Assessment 2009
Interim Report from the 4 Horn Survey 2008
Following last year’s survey of multi-horned flocks, Helen Arthan kindly put all the data collected onto a spreadsheet and Richard Small has done an early analysis of these results and produced an interim report. It makes interesting reading!.......Download your copy of 4 Horn Interim Report by clicking here.........4 Horn Interim Report 2008
To continue the effectiveness of this report and ensure we have as much data as possible to analyse please do undertake the survey again this year. A copy of the relevant survey collection sheet together with a flier explaining the process and the scoring of eyes can be found on the 4 Horn Working Group webpages.