£2.4m dairy payments on way

After a week of brickbats and media criticism over delays to farm support payments, the Scottish Government gained some plaudits yesterday for its swift handling of the EU’S emergency funding package for the milk sector.

With payments worth £2.4 million to Scottish dairy farmers due to arrive in farmers’ bank accounts in the coming days, NFU Scotland milk committee chairman James Rankin welcomed the government’s decision to make the payments now, ahead of the September deadline:

“It is a credit to NFUS, Scottish Dairy Hub and the Scottish Government that we were able to pull together a simple scheme that will see more than 700 of Scotland’s dairy farmers commit to efficiency measures around milk recording and production profiling,” said Rankin.

“More importantly, it will push some £2.4m of valuable funds into fragile bank accounts.”

It was also confirmed that the payments would be at an increased rate.

Rrural secretary Fergus Ewing said that the highest payments, of £5,000, would be to producers on Bute, Arran, Mull, and the Kintyre peninsula to protect the supply base for Campbeltown creamery.

Farmers paid less than 20p per litre (ppl) in 2016 would receive £4,250, those under 25 ppl would get £2,500, while those who received 25 ppl or more would receive £1,500.

“Additionally farmers who met the criteria of less than 1 million litres of milk production in 2015, will also receive a supplementary payment of £452.72,” said Ewing.