No drawing the short straw for these bale artists

Support: NFUS warns that deadline looms ahead of first payments expected in November

Around a third of Scottish farmers have so far failed to respond to the Government’s offer of a loan worth 90% of their anticipated Basic Payment and Greening support.

The October 20 deadline is less than a week away, causing the farmers union to issue an urgent plea to producers to respond as soon as possible.

It is understood that only 10,000 farmers have replied to the initial offer which was made to more than 16,000 eligible producers at the end of September.

The Government’s rural payments directorate is expected to make payments in November to those who apply before the deadline.

NFU Scotland’s (NFUS) director of policy, Jonnie Hall, urged farmers to act now if they wanted to be considered for the first run of loan payments.

“This is proving to be a difficult and challenging autumn for farmers and crofters and the reality is that a long, costly winter lies ahead,” he said.

“This loan scheme gives farmers and crofters the opportunity to opt in for a loan that will go some significant way to easing the cashflow worries that will already be building.”

Meanwhile, sheep producers have been reminded of the rules surrounding the ewe hogg coupled support scheme.

The deadline for applying to the Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme (SUSSS) had been extended to November 30, but the retention period is unchanged and starts on Tuesday and runs until March 31 2018.

It means that hoggs entered for the scheme must be properly tagged and recorded by Tuesday.

Mr Hall said: “It is very important for claimants to remember that the rules of the ewe hogg scheme essentially require claimed animals to be tagged and recorded before the start of the retention period on October 17.

“While the prolonged wet weather means workloads are still well behind, it is important to remind our hill farmers and crofters of the SUSSS rules to avoid any problems should they be subject to an official inspection.”

An extension to the deadline for the scheme was announced by Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing last month, due to problems caused by wet weather.

Picture: Getty Images. The deadline for applications to the Government’s offer of a loan worth 90% of farmers’ anticipated Basic Payment and Greening support expires next Friday.