Single Application closing date reminder

Farmers are reminded that the closing date for submitting their 2007 Single Farm Applications is Tuesday 15 May 2007.

Applications received by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) after 15 May and by 9 June 2007 will incur late penalties. Those received after 9 June 2007 will be rejected.

Up to the present some 7,200 applications have been received. 2007 application packs have been issued to all farm businesses which lodged an application in 2006. Businesses that did not lodge an application in 2006, or have not yet received a pack, can obtain one by contacting their local DARD office. Guidance on the completion of the application form and field data sheet is provided in the Applicants’ Guide included in the pack.

Farmers should also note that:

• Farm maps are not included in the 2007 Single Application pack. Landowners who notified changes to their maps during last year will have received a revised map and should use this when completing the field data sheet. If no change has been reported, the most recent map issued by DARD should be used.
• Farm businesses that used leased / conacre land to support a claim in 2006 will have received maps for this land in April 2007. These maps will not include fields for which the area determined for aid in 2006 did not correspond with that held on the department’s mapping system at the time the maps were produced in February 2007. In this situation, farmers will previously have received a letter from DARD detailing the fields involved and advising them to contact their local office to have their queries sorted out.
• Farmers intending to use leased / conacre land on their 2007 application which was not on their 2006 claim must contact the landowner to obtain the most up-to-date map.
• When completing the application form and field data sheet it is important that farmers check all the pre-printed information to ensure it reflects their intended position for 2007. The field areas pre-printed on the field data sheet should be checked. If these are wrong the pre-printed information should be amended and, if the changes to the map have not already been notified to DARD, these should be reported immediately to the local office using the form GIS 2 provided in the application pack.
• Businesses that applied to transfer entitlements by sale or lease and who have not yet been notified of the outcome should bear in mind when completing their 2007 Single Application that entitlements belong to the business approved by DARD as holding them at 15 May 2007. The department is writing to all farmers whose applications to transfer entitlements have not yet been processed with advice on how to complete their 2007 Single Application.

Staff in local DARD offices are available to assist with queries about the application and to deal with notifications of changes to farm maps. If farmers need to go to their local office they are encouraged to do so well in advance of the 15 May closing date. Main local offices are open Monday to Friday 9.00 am to 4.00 pm. On Tuesday 15 May offices will be open until 5.00 pm.

Notes to Editors

1. The Department advises that the total field area recorded on the field data sheet at Column C and shown on farm maps should exclude the area of any permanent features such as buildings, ponds, yards or laneways etc. Further, any ineligible areas within a field, such as scrub, should not be claimed for payment at Section 3 of the field data sheet. Where there are ineligible areas within the field the area in the most recent map should be reduced as necessary as maps show the size of the field parcel rather than the eligible area within the field.
2. In 2006 DARD received 39,900 Single Applications
3. A DARD Question and Answer Brief on the 2007 Single Application process is available on the DARD website
4. An additional Question and Answer Brief on the Single Farm Payment Scheme, including advice about eligible field areas, is available online at http://www.dardni.gov.uk/index/faq/single-farm-payment-questions.htm
5. All media enquiries to DARD Press Office, tel: 028 9052 4619.