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Back to Menu The Brian Pack Review at the Cairndale Hotel The scene at the Cairndale Hotel, last month, when Brian Pack outlined his interim report reminded me of a reading of a will. It was a very solemn occasion, the deceased had left less money than everyone had thought and there were far too many relations all looking for a share. The meeting was part of the consultative phase of the government funded inquiry into the future of direct farm support in Scotland after 2013. It was an opportunity for farmers to ask questions and to feed back into the inquiry and as you would expect the opportunity was not missed many that were there. The one thing that became clear was that everybody is worried about their future. From the very biggest farming concern that provides much needed employment to the smallest family run farm that has been the cornerstone of Scottish farming. The first thing that struck me, when I read the report, was that the change to an area based payment will welcome-in a whole host of new land managers who had no Single Farm Payment in the past. The inclusion of new forestry planting alone will increase the area receiving payment by 14%. Other land based farming activities like deer farming will also be included for the first time. So, with the same money to go around, support is bound to be spread thinner! The one sure way to find out where support is really needed the most would be to take all support away completely and see which areas would collapse first. Not that I’m suggesting, for a moment, that we do that. One quick glance at the latest Farm Business Income figures will confirm, what I think everyone will know already, regardless of where you live and how you farm. The casualties would start to appear among the specialist sheep farmers in the hills and the destruction would quickly work its way down into the Uplands. But, I’m pretty sure the damage wouldn’t go all the way to the sea. Brian Pack’s interim report suggests that government should use the Macaulay Land Capability for Agriculture system (LCA) as a basis for allocating support. The LCA was developed by the Macaulay Institute to describe the agricultural potential of land based on the degree of limitation imposed by its biophysical properties. Class 1, 2 and 3 land is capable of producing a range of crops which diminish as you move from class 1 land, which is capable of growing a very wide range of crops through, to class 3 land which can support a moderate range of crops. Class 4 land can only produce a narrow range of crops but is primarily suitable to grass production while classes 5 through to 7 are suited only to improved grassland and rough grazings. With this in mind I believe that the area of land classed as 4 and particularly 5 is where the battle will be won and lost in the 2013 reforms. I don’t think that the Pack report goes far enough to support these areas because this is precisely how to identify where Upland farming is taking place. The class 5 land more than any other area is where successive governments have tried to increase production since the war. They have given grants to fence it; they’ve drained it; they’ve pulled out the gorse and the whins; they’ve sprayed the bracken; they’ve put pioneer crops into it they’ve limed it and they have reseeded it. Man’s influence and activity has changed these areas of the landscape more than any other in the last sixty years. If this land reverts back to the state it was in before The Second World War it will be testimony to the fact that the lessons that Britain learned while it experienced food rationing has been forgotten. Hunger tends to focus your mind when it comes to food security! The interim report produced by the inquiry misses the mark in the way that it proposes to apportion support. Less weight must be given to the land classed as 1 and 2 and possibly 3 in favour of classes 4 and 5. If upland farming is not defended now then the structure that our stratified livestock industry is based on will crumble into ruins and 80% of Scotland will end up being ranched by the end of this decade.
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