Should a livestock health plan be made compulsory for SFP cross compliance?

BUREAUCRACY WE CAN DO WITHOUT

ON THE face of it, the call for a livestock health plan and implementation to be linked to the Single Farm Payment may seem reasonable enough.
Certainly, Moredun’s chief executive, Dr Julie Fitzpatrick, is absolutely correct to highlight the benefits, not to mention welfare considerations, of keeping flocks and herds as healthy as possible. But at a time when farmers are having to face huge hikes in cross compliance ‘fines’ against their SFP, many livestock keepers will see this as only adding another level of bureaucracy to the mountain of red tape that already has to be contended with.
Scottish livestock farmers – with thankfully only a few exceptions – as a matter of course put the health and welfare of their animals first and foremost, whether or not they have an ‘official’ animal health plan in place.
To force such a plan onto this vast majority will be seen by many as not only adding yet another tier of compulsory compliance but also another unwarranted and unnecessary veterinary cost. It will also be seen as another opportunity for the ‘snoopers’ to come a visiting, with all the angst that this brings.