Falklands : Camp Matters with McLeod and Pollard
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 29.10.2004 (Article Archived on 12.11.2004)
This is the sixth year of the Pasture Improvement Programme. Mandy McLeod and Andrew Pollard let us in on how things are progressing.
CAMP MATTERS WITH McLEOD AND POLLARD
A Report for FIBS by Sian Ferguson (SF) 29 October 2004
Intro by Corina Goss (CG). Today Sian Ferguson is talking to Mandy McLeod (MM) and Andrew Pollard (AP) from the Agriculture Department about the Pasture Improvement Programme.
SF: Thank you for coming in. Can you tell me a bit about the Pasture Improvement Programme? What’s been going on for the past couple of months?
AP: As people know the programme has got to its sixth year out of the. There are four more to go. This year a team of us have been out and completed plans with farmers and these plans have now gone to the office and will be implemented into this year. The plans have been based on forage cropping, reseeding and this year, also fencing to be used in the rotation of grazing.
MM: It’s been a very busy two or three weeks for us in the Department as plans have been received. We’ve gone through them scrupulously. Farmers have had to show a return of £3.00 for every £1.00 government have spent. This is being very rigorously looked at. Prior to our three weeks in the Office, we have been busy because we are on a very tight time line. We couldn’t move any quicker than we have because we needed to know if we had the money in the budget for this year. Under normal circumstances we probably would have had farmers hanging several months in advance of what they did. But because the budget constraints we had to leave the panic a little late. Andy, Damian and Doug have all been out in camp at various venues over the last couple of months helping Farmers think about what they want to do and put their plans together. Once the plans all came in – the deadline was the end of September – there was a mad rush to ensure the plans were scrutinised and approved accordingly. The farmers also had their agreements out to them for them to sign. Hopefully they will get back to us accepting our offer of a loan.
SF: How many applications did you receive this year?
MM: We received 48 applicants but there are 49 farms that are actually involved in the Pasture Improvement Programme to date. Just one farm decided not to be involved. In the scheme this year but they did send the form back.
SF: Have they all been approved?
MM: Yes. None have been rejected outright. We’ve had some where we had to clarify some points that were written one way by us but interpreted another way by them. So we have been phoning around the farms and clarifying situations where it’s been needed.
SF: What’s happened over applications that have gone out? Are all happy with them sent back to you?
MM: Once the Farmers are happy with their agreement – I’ll explain something now – the agreement they have is for what they call a loan agreement and it’s the way the Government work, on a grant system, really, that if the works aren’t completed – that the farmer has signed and agreed to, that grant gets transferred to a loan and any money that has been paid out towards the works on that farm would need to be repaid. It’s only if the Farmer fails to meet what he or she has agreed to do. But generally speaking, it is a grant.
SF: Will the Department of Agriculture be involved in the scheme at all when it has been started?
AP: Almost certainly – yes. On the farms now, the ground is being worked up. People are posting their fencing. It’s certainly a key part of my job, Damian’s job and Doug’s job to get on to the farms to monitor these works and help with them. We’ve also got trials going on that are linked to these pasture improvement works. We are ready to get as much advice as we can out to them.
SF: Are there any applications this year that are different than previous years?
AP: There are differences. There is a theme of re seeding going on. One of the biggest shifts going on is leaning away from just planting grass and legumes with the re seed and sewing crops such as oats to try and get feed off that crop in the first year. Otherwise, if it’s a re seed, you’d have to leave it for a year. There is rotational grazing – managed grazing. People are looking at sub-divisional methods so they can rest the plants and get more effective grazing out of the area they’ve got. There’s an element of ditching going on. But I suppose the main thing is people work hard on the feed at certain critical points in the year. One of the main crops we have been pushing for a while now is growing Swedes for winter feed. That’s the period when animals generally tend to decline in weight. Some of the farms recently showed that their animals actually put on weight by grazing the Swedes in the winter. There are approximately 360 hectors of Swedes going into the ground this year. This could feed 100,000 ewes for a month. This could have good gains for Agriculture.
SF: When will these schemes actually start being put into place?
MM: It’s started and happening now. The farmers are already ordering materials. Many farms are beginning anyway in the hope that their plan will be successful. They’ve bitten the bullet and said they are prepared to put their own money in as well. Things are already on the move, aren’t they, Andrew?
AP: Definitely, yes.
SF: You said they had to have a return of £3.00 for every £1.00 spent. How have they got to prove that amount?
MM: It’s based over a period of 10 years. For every £1.00 spent if they could have at least a £3.00 return over a 10-year period on that, we believe that that is money well spent. From our initial investigations and using our gross margin and from the knowledge and understanding of rotational grazing systems and alternative pasture management that we’ve done through the Farming for Profit schemes that we’ve done, I think that things are moving on very well. Each year they are going to put a plan in and I think that’s something we need to talk about as well. Farmers should be planning for next year.
AP: Just before we move on to that, it’s important to point out the farm doesn’t have to get a gain of £3.00 for every £1.00 spent. It’s important just to show that it has the potential to get £3.00. We all know crops can fail, people can have medical problems and all sorts of different issues, so the farmer just has to show the potential on the plan to do this.
MM: Yes. And that the farmer has done his best to achieve that potential. Moving on to the fact we had such a rush this year getting the plans together, which wouldn’t be the norm but we would like people to start thinking now about what they want to do next year and through the duration of the next three years of the programme.
AP: Our deadline this year was the 30th of September, which is hitting into the busy part of the farmers’ calendar year. Next year, we hope to bring this forward considerably to aid with all of this planning that people really need to start looking ahead now to next year’s plan. And, farmers have to assume that there is going to be a budget to work with this plan. The other thing is that the farmers have a baseline allocation of money this year that’s spread over a whole lot and some farms are still considerably below this baseline allocation. It’s important to see that into next year’s plan they may decide to grow a crop next year. Maybe they could use this funding this year to prepare that ground and make it ready for that. So, really they are getting a year ahead of what they want to do. This eliminates the risk of not being able to get into the ground next year.
MM: The state we are at the moment is that the agreements have gone out to the farmers and they are starting to come back in. Once they get back in to the Department, I then send them out another letter, which explains to them what they can and cannot claim for. We are making the payments direct to farmers and we won’t make the payments to suppliers or contractors. All negotiations with suppliers and contractors is down to the farmer to do. We will then pay the farmers on the receipt of invoices. So, that’s the next stage, if they are wondering.
SF: Anything else you want to add?
AP: Just a last minute plea to farmers – it is going to be busy for everyone this time of year but if you are trying to get seed on the Tamar to the West in cases like this, then it’s handy to know days in advance rather than a day in advance, just so we can get this prepared and get it down there so everything runs smoothly.
MM: Just to say if any farmers have any queries, don’t hesitate to call Andy or myself, Doug or Damian and we can talk them through things.
SF: Thank you for coming in.
(100X Transcription Service)
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