A Reminder for Anyone Who Might Need It...

A quick reminder that anyone who needs to put in a return for Single Farm Payments, Less Favoured Area payments etc (IACS), the final date for submission is 15th May. This year, info on common grazings is required on the main forms, so if you use any common grazings, make sure you know its field identifier in good time.

What will happen next year when we have to electronically tag all the sheep? For stock owners like us, it will not be financially viable, and is totally unnecessary. The only place our sheep go is to the abbattoir (and that's just the wethers). We have never sent sheep off the island for any other purpose, and any sheep we bring on to the croft live there until they die naturally.

Is the EU really trying to kill off businesses like ours who rely on access to wool from little flocks, widely scattered? What will the land look like when all the sheep have gone? Do the administrators in Brussels know that the Outer Hebrides looks the way it does only because of generations of grazing by sheep and cattle. Do they care?