Am left with much to stew on

fella, but I am still trying to get to grips with the contents of the densely worded six-page letter that I received in the post last week.

The bit that I did understand is that they have let me back into the scheme.

It appears that one of the Department’s main concerns was that I was trying to ‘game’ the system by selecting the LESS option, which immediately gave my application a high-priority status in the situation where the scheme was oversubscribed.

The fact that, in the end, there was room for all applicants to the scheme seems to be irrelevant to the authorities here.

And while my initial inclination was to holler and whoop, I am left stewing on all kinds of doubts and dark thoughts.

When is my next inspection due? What will they target me for this time? Is it just me?

Even if I park the conspiratorial urges, there are some big issue questions arising from these kinds of incidents.

The Department were happy to let all the environmental measures that I had taken go to waste because I had a zero in the wrong box?

Surely they are also conscious of the fall-out from these kinds of scenarios with individuals and their neighbours?

If they can’t get wellmeaning farmers to trust them and the schemes that they invite us to participate in, where are they going longterm?

When I look back at the last few years, I see an everincreasing list of daft fines and penalties.

I’ve suffered deductions because somebody on the Department payroll took the time to cut out the corner areas of each field of daffodils where we have to lift the planter and turn the machine.

I’ve been fined for having an untagged pet sheep. And then this latest drama with what I would consider a fairly straight-forward scheme application.

Having worked with, and known personally, so many good people in the Department, I still have faith in the system as a whole. But these recent experiences do chip away at that belief.

So if I have one wish for this Christmas, it’s that the Department works harder to allow farmers keep the faith in 2019.

WHEN I LOOK OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS, I SEE AN EVERINCREASING LIST OF DAFT FINES AND PENALTIES