[Treud na Mara]

OK, so as I understand it :

Pillar 1 direct payments

These are for 'active farmers'.

If you have 'entitlements' to SFP at the moment, you should be getting a letter shortly which summarises these on a field by field basis. It is VERY important that you go through this on a line by line basis and check that the classifications of your land is correct as you only have 60 days to appeal to change this. And the difference between Region 1 land at approx €149 per hectare and Region 2 at €26 per hectare is considerable.
Region 1 is better quality agricultural land, used for arable cropping, temporary grass and permanent grassland, and Region 2 includes rough grazing with a Less Favoured Area grazing category of B,C,D or non-LFA.
Providing a field is at least 40% Region 1 classified, the whole field can be claimed as Region 1, which is really important when it comes to grassland.
These entitlements will form the basis of the basic payments in the new scheme. There will also be a 25% top up to these, up to 90 hectares, for young farmers (classified as not over 40).
If you are a new entrant ie commenced agricultural activity in 2013 or later you will be able to apply and can qualify for payments from the National Reserve.
Additionally there is Voluntary Coupled Support for cattle and sheep, which applies per head, subject to certain qualifications.
The much talked about (even on the Archers!) Crop Diversification requirements only apply if you have 10 hectares or more of arable land. And Ecological Focus Areas are only required if you have 15 hectares or more of arable land.

Pillar 2 is money to be used under the Scottish Rural Development Plan and this has not been finalised as yet, but may well include support for 'small farmers'.

If you don't have entitlements currently, or you're not sure, get in touch with your local SGRIPD office as soon as possible for advice as to how to apply.

I hope that helps. There is lots of detailed information on the Scottish Government website under CAP.

[mowhaugh]

Thank you.  My task for tomorrow is to check the letter, not looking forward to it, no doubt it will be the usual performance of the field references not matching the map we have.

[Treud na Mara]

The chap last night said you can get them to change these too. Apparently a bit of a palaver involving 'coloured crayons' ! But after the new system gets up and running, you should be able to do it all online.

[Talana]

Make sure everything's correct on your letter - on ours they had deleted a 5 acre field -off to thainstone. Also added in rough bits that don't exist.

[mowhaugh]

The chap last night said you can get them to change these too. Apparently a bit of a palaver involving 'coloured crayons' ! But after the new system gets up and running, you should be able to do it all online.

it always does get sorted int he end, but is always so time consuming and frustrating.  When we had our aerial maps done, they suddenly divided one of our hills into five fields, each with a different identifier.  They had decided that the remains of Iron Age settlements were modern fences.  I had a hell of a job convincing them otherwise!