A number of important matters affecting Northern Ireland hill farmers will be discussed by the Committee over the incoming months and the Chairman is looking forward to meeting with his UK and Irish counterparts and the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture to discuss the issues.
High on the agenda will be the European Commission's (EC) plans to re-classify current LFA areas by 2010. The consultation process on these proposals is likely to get underway over the next couple of months and the UK Unions met just last week to discuss these proposals. A number of concerns were raised and it was agreed that it would be impractical to implement any changes to LFA designation in the middle of the current Rural Development budget (2007 – 2013). The UFU Hill Farming Committee has already stated that they wish to see no change to the current Northern Ireland LFACA scheme.
Sheep ID also continues to be a major point of discussion. The EC is set on pushing ahead with plans to implement compulsory individual tagging and electronic tagging from January 2010. The Committee has expressed their deep concern at the proposals which they feel will add extra cost and bureaucracy to the industry without actually delivering any additional benefits to what the current ID offers. The Committee fear if the changes in Sheep ID are implemented, the Northern Ireland sheep flock could rapidly decline.
Other issues the Committee will continue to discuss will include the need for additional Suckler Cow and Hill Sheep support, the new Countryside Management Scheme and Northern Ireland's Bluetongue controls and action plan.