Western Daily Press (Saturday)
An inspector calls – and brings only more misery
Farmers are having a tough enough time at the moment without visits from unsympathetic Rural Payments Agency inspectors to add to their woes, says
WE are a grazing farm, on heavy clay, but try to get our cows out as early as possible. However, putting them out at the beginning of February this year turned out to be very optimistic.
Although the cows greatly enjoyed themselves, heavy rain the next day and the days following soon put paid to grazing, with fresh flooding and many roads impassable.
A few years ago, we managed to get the cows out in January as it was nice and dry, and there was lots of grass. The following week it snowed, which meant back in again and out a week later, but then the weather improved, and they were out every day from then to November.
Now, we’re waiting for better and drier weather so they can go out again. Where our fields have been badly flooded, we can’t graze them as usual and will have to make an early cut of silage first to make sure they don’t have any residual nasties from the floods.
I was both horrified and very saddened to read of the death of East Midlands farmer Rocky Poulson after a Rural Payments inspection.
The inspector found 18 bought-in sheep had the wrong colour eartags. Mr Poulson feared that the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) was treating this as a criminal offence and he would never be allowed to keep sheep again, and in his desperation, took his own life.
Many farmers are at the end of their tether, and the phone call to say that an inspector is arriving the next day nearly always creates fear and panic.
Over the years, we have had a multitude of inspections, and after the initial angst, these generally went well. That is, until the Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier (CSS) inspection we had in the middle of Covid.
When we originally applied for CSS Mid-Tier, I was really enthusiastic, and measured everything correctly, and went to four RPA meetings. The bookwork needed was as bad as taking an A-level, but our farm seemed to be very much in the spirit of the grant, as we have planted more than 1,400 trees on our farm, created 11 little woodlands, kept all the farm ponds and made a wildlife corridor along the brook.
When the inspector phoned, it was in the middle of Covid and no one from outside was visiting the farm. I explained the timing was not good, as my husband had just had a serious heart attack and needed to be isolated, so I couldn’t accompany the inspector round the farm.
However, he was aggressive in manner and said that was not a problem, as we would have the opportunity to comment on the findings before they were finalised.
The visit took place in September, and when I hadn’t heard anything five months later, I phoned the RPA and was told that everything was fine, and there was nothing on our file. I was astounded to get an email on May 6 with lots of alterations in measurements, and demands for repayment with penalties.
It was at this stage that I really panicked. I found that we were being fined on our ponds, as they were smaller following the summer drought, though they subsequently filled up with water again. Our riparian banks along the brook had just been re-mapped, so I was being fined as they were no longer part of the field. I wrote very many letters and emails to the RPA, but didn’t get anywhere.
All this had a very bad effect on my mental health and was a considerable strain, both mental and financial. We were treated without care or consideration. When the RPA or the inspector had made mistakes, there was no apology and if we made an unintended mistake, we got a severe penalty.
Unbelievably, this same inspector emailed me a year later to say he was coming to do a Sustainable Farm Initiative
inspection. I told Defra that no, that particular inspector wasn’t coming, and they sent a very nice and helpful lady instead.
These inspectors should not be there to put the fear of God into farmers, but should be instructed to go easy where there are genuine mistakes. The inspectors need to be more sympathetic and aware of the mental state of the farmers during the inspection.
It would seem that the more havoc and unease they can create the better they appear to be doing their job. It’s sad that farming has come so dependent for its income on form filling and box ticking, rather than good old-fashioned farming.
The extent to which farmers are unhappy is shown in the way that protests are now beginning in the UK. There have been blockades in Dover, with concern over trade deals and imports from countries with lower standards of production.
The way in which supermarkets are selling British produce at prices “cheaper than the cost of production” particularly drew criticism.
In Carmarthen market, more than 3,000 Welsh farmers gathered in protest, carrying a coffin bearing the plaque “In memory of Welsh farming.”
The farmers are concerned about the proposed new subsidy system which is now at the third, and final, stage of consultation. There is great concern about the new subsidy system which wants 10% of land planted with trees, together with 10% wildlife areas.
In the EU, farmer protests are increasing day by day and increasing from country to country. There are common threads to the protects. The power of the supermarkets and the way they can make their own rules and prices, so that the unfortunate farmers are often paid below the cost of production.
There is fear of cheaper imports from countries outside the EU with lower environmental and welfare standards. Farmers are also very nervous about green policies which will cut their ability to produce food without adequate compensation.
Climate change is an increasing problem, illustrated by the rise in flooding. Swift action is needed, but the compensation needs to be high enough to take the farmers with it. There is also a need to tackle the impact from air traffic which means fewer foreign holidays for everyone.
And as for food? Climate change will ensure there is less of it.
Ro Collingborn is a Wiltshire dairy farmer and has been dairy chairman of the Women’s Food and Farming Union, on the Milk Development Council, the Veterinary Products Committee, the RSPCA Council and a Wiltshire Wildlife Trust director.
The phone call to say that an inspector is arriving the next day nearly always creates fear and panic