Upland sheep scheme victory

Sheep producers in remote areas will get an additional fortnight this year to apply to the Scottish upland sheep support scheme (SUSSS) following a successful campaign by NFU Scotland.

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

The union has consist- ently called for the application period to be extended so that shepherds have greater flexibility in their workload which can be affected by poor weather as they try to gather hill sheep at that time of year.

Due to adverse weather last year, the 2017 scheme application period was temporarily extended. The announcement by the Scottish Government yesterday makes that extension permanent. The SUSSS application period will now run from 1 September to 30 November extended from 16th October. The retention period will be from 1 December to 31 March the following calendar year having previously been from 17 October to 31 March.

The chairman of union’s less favoured areas committee, Robert Macdonald, who farms at Grantown on Spey, said the new dates would make the scheme more effective, giving people time to access hill ground. “The problems with the weather in 2017 were exceptional but, by no means, a one-off and it’s therefore welcome to see the Scottish Government make these changes permanent,” he said.