Appeal for deadline extension

With 2017 being the fifth wettest summer on record, NFU Scotland has appealed to the Scottish Government to extend the deadline for hill sheep farmers applying to the Scottish upland sheep support scheme (SUSSS).

The union’s argument is based on the fact that western Scotland has had more than half-a-metre of rain falling in the three months to 30 August. As a result, Scotland’s hill farmers are struggling to complete even routine tasks such as gathering and clipping sheep, weaning lambs and making hay or silage.

The union believes submitting an accurate application ahead of the 16 October deadline will be extremely challenging.

The scheme, worth around £6 million, is designed to assist active hill farmers and crofters with a payment coupled to the number of ewe hoggs they keep as breeding replacements for their flocks.

In a letter to cabinet secretary Fergus Ewing, the union has requested that Scottish Government seek European approval for a one-off extension to the application period for SUSSS to at least 16 November in recognition of the exceptionally poor weather.

Union vice-president Martin Kennedy said: “When committee members met last week it was crystal clear just how far behind our farmers and crofters are in their normal workload.

“NFU Scotland believes there is strong grounds for Scottish Government to pursue with the European Commission an extension to the application deadline due to the very challenging circumstances facing those who are reliant on SUSSS.

“Given this year’s extremely poor weather, especially in the west, not only do some farmers and crofters not have any winter fodder made, but they have had little or no opportunity to gather some of these extensive hillsides to clip, wean lambs and draw their future breeding stock, routine tasks normally completed long before now,.”