SCOTLAND-ONLY agricultural greening rules have put its producers at a competitive disadvantage to growers south of the Border, Scottish farms minister Fergus Ewing has been told.

To persuade Mr Ewing to strip out this 'gold-plating' – which was introduced under the tenure of his predecessor Richard Lochhead – the National Farmers Union Scotland this week took him to Townhead Farm, Balbeggie near Perth, to meet the union's combinable crops committee chairman, Ian Sands, and see the practical effects of farming to tighter rules than those actually required by the European Union.

Speaking afterwards, Mr Sands said: “The Brexit vote may change support arrangements in the future but, until we are officially out of Europe and no longer benefitting from the CAP, we must continue to operate as before – and that means seeking significant changes to our greening requirements to remove the gold-plating introduced at a Scottish level."

The union believes that areas where gold-plating can be stripped out of Scottish rules include the growing of Nitrogen Fixing Crops; the use of conversion factors when calculating Ecological Focus Areas; grazing on buffer strips; management of fallow land and a greater choice of EFA options, including forestry and hedges.

The union also believes that the requirement for livestock farmers to have a record of intended nitrogen and lime applications to all their fields of permanent grassland is just a "compliance trip wire", with no environmental benefits.

“On using NFCs to meet EFA requirements, Scotland-only management rules on harvesting and field margins put Scottish growers at a competitive disadvantage with respect to growers in England," explained Mr Sands. "For 2016, a third management prescription was added for Scotland, requiring farmers growing NFC as an EFA option to grow at least two such crops. The area of the largest crop must not account for 75% or more of the NFC EFA crop area.

“For many growers, that makes this option impractical and on farms with a relatively small EFA obligation, the smaller of the crops would be too small to be economically produced, stored, transported and marketed."

Regarding the EFA conversion factors made available by Europe to simplify the burden of measuring EFA land, Mr Sands pointed out that, unlike the rest of the British Isles and Eire, the Scottish Government had decided not to take advantage of this option, leaving farmers jumping through "ridiculous hoops" to record the actual width of buffer strips and field margins measured along their entire length.

“This is a nonsense for Scotland where watercourses or field boundaries are rarely in a straight line," he said.

Turning to EFA fallow, Mr Sands noted that farmers in England are allowed to use mechanical methods to control weeds and conduct drainage work during the fallow period – but Scottish farmers have suffered significant weed problems that could not be addressed by the spot treatment permitted here.

"Those weed problems spread, and the result has been an increased need for more spraying," he said, suggesting that we would serve the environment better by following the English lead.

“Last winter many Scottish farms also experienced flooding and damage to drains," he added. "The logical time to undertake maintenance work is when land is out of crop. Scottish growers are precluded from doing drainage works during the fallow period by the current interpretation of the rules in Scotland. That, again, isn’t the case in England.

“These examples of gold-plating also need to be viewed alongside the complete nonsense introduced in Scotland this year, requiring nutrient management plans on permanent grassland. That is something we have also written to the Cabinet Secretary about.

“Given the uncertainty that lies ahead, Scotland’s growers deserve to get the best deal from greening measures and we hope that this visit will encourage the Cabinet Secretary to make the most of this opportunity to strip out Scottish Government’s own gold-plating. That would make the years ahead where we continue to operate within the CAP more manageable and efficient for our farmers while still delivering meaningful environmental benefits.”