Hill farmers could abandon the land within five years, warns NFU
Last updated 10:21, Friday, 26 September 2008
A critical decline in sheep numbers in the Scottish uplands could hit Cumbria in five years’ time, a national NFU spokesman has warned.
Will Cockbain, uplands spokesman and Cumbrian hill farmer, said a 60 per cent decline in sheep numbers in parts of Scotland could be replicated here.
A survey to be published by the Northwest Regional Development Agency this month will reveal that average hill farm incomes in the region fell to £7,400 last year.
Hill farming has become unviable without support payments because of high input costs and the poor wool price.
A report on hill farming by the Scottish Agricultural College revealed that 60 per cent of sheep have disappeared from parts of the north west of Scotland since 1999. Since 1998, the national Scottish sheep flock has fallen to 2,305,573.
There was a 28 per cent fall in Dumfries and Galloway between 1997 and 2007, according to the study. The change has been blamed on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and de-coupling of support payments.
Mr Cockbain, who farms near Keswick, said: “There could be land abandonment – it has already started to happen in Scotland. There are large tracts where hill farming has just disappeared.”
He claims that the Cumbrian workforce is at an all-time low. If this continues, he says, there will be subtle changes at first, which will get more dramatic. Brush and reeds will take hold, making many areas inaccessible and changing the appearance of the Lake District landscape.
Mr Cockbain added: “If the workforce is allowed to go much lower, there will be substantial changes here.
“Society needs to ask itself the question – do we want the landscape maintained as it is. If the answer is yes then we have to accept that we need the management capabilities there.”
He is currently in negotiations with the government over the new Uplands Entry Level Scheme, which is due to replace the Hill Farm Allowance. The NFU is trying to persuade the government to increase the budget, which has not increased since 1995.
Mr Cockbain also wants to see more flexible planning rules introduced to allow more than one generation to live on farms.
He added: “Scotland has started to drop over the edge. We’re not quite in that situation yet but we’re fast approaching it. I think we’re about five years behind in terms of decline.”
