SHEEP farmers will now receive the emergency payments announced last month in the wake of the foot and mouth outbreak.
The £6 per ewe payment will be paid by the Scottish Government within the next week after receiving clearance from the European Union.
The National Farmers Union of Scotland has welcomed the payments but warns that it is only a fraction of the huge losses incurred by sheep producers this year.
The Scottish Crofting Foundation (SCF) had warned that the European Commission could have dealt a death blow to sheep-rearing in the crofting areas if they had refused to endorse the payment proposed under the Scottish Government’s Scottish Ewes Scheme, to compensate producers for losses suffered because of foot and mouth disease restrictions.
The EC studied the proposed payment of £6 a head for breeding ewes to ensure that it did not contravene EC state aid rules. Richard Lochhead, the secretary for rural affairs and the environment, had anticipated that the payments would be made by the end of the month.
The payments should have been issued by mid-November and were part of a wider package of emergency measures to help the Scottish livestock industry recover from the severe crisis resulting from the FMD outbreak in England.
The total cost is estimated at £19 million.
Neil MacLeod, vice-chairman of the SCF, said thay had been anxious because of the delay.
‘We were delighted when the financial help was announced.
‘As usual it wasn’t enough to meet all the losses suffered by crofters, but it was going to be a great help, when you consider the cost of sheep feed this year. People have already bought in barley and oats at around £300 a tonne. Hay we are told is being imported from the Continent or Canada.
Now £6 a head would have helped, but we were worried that the EC would not permit the payment to be made,’ said Neil MacLeod.
He said that had the EC decision gone against granting the aid, it could have forced a lot of people out of sheep production completely.
‘It will be very difficult to carry on. The money was promised by the middle of November and there will be people who have decided on the basis of that to buy in feed, and tups for this year’s breeding season, and made other financial commitments on the basis of that promise.
‘It will be very difficult for them, and banks could already be asking when the money is to be repaid,” said Neil MacLeod. He added: ‘This will reduce the number of crofters who are producing sheep. The sector has suffered blow after blow. It is becoming more difficult, especially in the remoter areas. So few people keep sheep now, that it is difficult for the people who are left to go out and gather the sheep from the moor for shearing and dipping. We are being snowed under with regulations, and we have faced numerous changes in legislation and broken promises which have discouraged people.’
