Hill farming faces uncertainty
Politicians and others drawing up future policy have been warned not to measure the contribution of Scotland’s hill farmers solely in terms of the kilos of high-quality beef or lamb they produce.
The significant role played by extensive grazing systems in maintaining thriving rural communities and flourishing environments was stressed by NFU Scotland policy director Jonnie Hall at a major conference yesterday.
But with Brexit making the future of the hill farming industry extremely vulnerable, he called on politicians to agree a post-brexit package of co-ordinated policy measures to secure the longer-term viability of the hill and upland areas.
“Given the physical and financial vulnerability of Scotland’s hill farms and crofts for the foreseeable future, extensive hill and upland farming enterprises potentially face the sheerest cliff-edge because of Brexit and withdrawal from the comon agricul- tural policy,” said Hall. “A strategy that sets out how to ensure that hill farming and crofting in Scotland can be viable and thrive must be developed.”
He said that Brexit-driven uncertainty was hitting confidence levels which were already fragile.
Hall claimed that rising input costs, compliance requirements and poor output prices meant that more disadvantaged areas remained heavily reliant on agricultural support – both in terms of the direct support available through Pillar 1 and the less favoured areas support scheme of Pillar 2.
“Make no mistake – further declines to active livestock production across our more disadvantaged land would bring a host of economic, environmental and social challenges that would go well beyond the direct interest of those farms and crofts on the frontline,” he warned.
There was bad news for milk producers yesterday when First Milk cut its March price by 1.25p per litre.
Vice-chairman and farmer director Jim Baird said that the move had been forced by the weaker dairy market: “We know that this further milk price drop will be disappointing to our members and continue to do all we can to mitigate the market conditions.”