What you need to know

The Poultrymeat (England) Regulations 2011 came into force on 21 March
Poultrymeat producers and processors will have to register their premises with Animal Health and the Food Standards Agency respectively, if they wish to use the Special Marketing Terms (SMT) for poultrymeat.

Movement restrictions on older cattle introduced
Cattle born or reared in the UK before 1 August 1996 have had new movement restrictions placed on them as an extra precaution against meat from these older cattle entering the food chain. Click here for an application for a licence to move these cattle.

£7.5m worth of grants come on stream to help farmers tackle water pollution
Farmers have until 30th April to apply for grants of up to £10,000 from the Catchment Sensitive Farming Capital Grants Scheme, which has opened for its fifth year. The scheme is competitive and open to farmers in 50 priority catchment areas across England for a range of improvements to reduce diffuse pollution from agriculture.

Uplands Policy Review
The conclusions of the Uplands Policy Review were announced by Secretary of State Caroline Spelman on 10 March. There are 23 commitments by Government to enhance the uplands natural environment, support thriving rural communities and develop affordable measures of support for hill farmers.

Cattle testing positive for TB to be DNA tagged
Cattle testing positive to Bovine TB are to be DNA tagged to further strengthen controls preventing spread of disease.

What you may have missed

Complying with the regulations on identification and recording of sheep and goats
A fact finding mission from the EU’s Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) is visiting the UK between 28 March and 7 April to see firsthand how we have implemented EID, and individual recording of sheep and goats. The team will visit sites including randomly selected farms to see how all concerned are doing their best to comply with regulations. This will provide invaluable support to the UK Government in discussions with the EU Commission on introducing more flexibility into the rules on movement recording.

Farmers in England are encouraged to submit their applications for Single Payment Scheme 2011 online via Business Link
Farmers who applied online last year won’t be sent a paper Single Payment Scheme appliction form this year; however they will still be sent a guidance book. Paper application forms have been sent to farmers and agents who didn’t apply online last year. These farmers are also being re-sent their e-channel personal identification numbers (PINs) and a booklet explaining how to use the online services. Drop-in centres for farmers who want to submit paper application forms opened from 21 March.

Continued support for educational visits to farms in Higher Level Stewardship
Defra has announced that annual revenue payments for some educational access visits will now continue within Higher Level Stewardship.

Find out about Defra’s current formal written consultations

Due to local elections, there will be no news alert at the end of April. The next edition will be issued in May.