ONCE when I was driving on Skye I had to stop and wait until a shaggy blackfaced sheep chose to rouse herself from the asphalt to let me past.
About 20 minutes later I had to stop again and, for a mad moment, I was convinced it was the same sheep that had somehow overtaken me to inflict further inconvenience. Superyowe – faster than a speeding bullet…
In the last year or two the odds of being held up by a woolly highway-yowe have lessened slightly. Sheep numbers have been in decline – down by almost 2.9 million between 1998 and 2009. Beef cattle numbers dropped as well, by more than 110,000 in the same decade.
The farming community knows all about this great change and the reasons for it. Scottish Natural Heritage also has an interest, because of the impacts the drop in stock numbers will have on the environment, and has published recently a comprehensive study of the problem.
Some conservationists may be pleased at the prospect of fewer sheep. When I was studying ecology in the late 1960s, a frequently heard mantra in relation to the Highlands was “sheep bad, cattle good”.
Under this scenario, sheep caused over-grazing – not to mention the Clearances – and were generally destructive, keeping the hill as a kind of peaty desert, while cattle were basically woodland animals, got on happily with trees and kept the ground in good heart. I am not pushing this argument now, but that was what we felt at the time.
The livestock decline came up in a discussion at the land, environment and sustainability strategy (LESS) group of the Highland Council a fortnight ago. The council’s agricultural adviser, David Macleod, Nairn-based but also with a farm on Skye (was it his yowe that humbowged my driving?), warned of problems arising from it.
On hill ground such as in Sutherland and upland Caithness, recovery of the land for farming once it has been without stock for some years is very difficult. The vegetation becomes rank. Other effects are that the birds associated with farming may disappear and uneaten vegetation can lead to higher fire risk, as happened this spring in parts of Kintail and Assynt.
It seems desirable, therefore, to keep sheep and cattle – in the right numbers – on hill farms. The latest news is that the decline in sheep has slowed and in cattle possibly stopped, a situation brought about by higher prices. The downside to better prices is that some crofters may take the chance to bail out when the going is good.
The main item on the LESS agenda was the impending reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, the infamous CAP, and the need to make sure the North does not lose out from any changes in how payments are made.
The way to do this, the mechanism favoured after much consideration, is to convince Brussels that the core of the present system embodied in the so-called Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) should be retained and targeted at new, defined Vulnerable Areas (VAs).
This was laid out in a report issued last November by a team led by Brian Pack OBE. The Pack report stated that VAs should comprise all the fragile areas, basically the islands and most of the Highlands, but for practical purposes, said Mr Macleod, definition has to be more precise and based on assessable criteria, including biophysical features, remoteness, fragility and risk of abandonment.
“An area may be remote but not under risk of abandonment,” said Mr Macleod, who was a member of the team that studied the definition of VAs, a team made up of people from all the local authorities, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and calling itself the Highlands and Islands Agricultural Support Group.
Remoteness was defined as being more than two hours’ drive from a major centre.
This produced on the first map presented to LESS the odd-looking situation whereby all the parishes in Caithness were designated remote except Latheron.
I took this to reflect the driving times from various parts of the county to Inverness. It also implies, of course, that neither Wick nor Thurso are regarded as major centres.
“The new VAs should be within the current LFA Fragile and Very Fragile areas,” continued Mr Macleod. This adjusts the map, with the result that only three parishes in Caithness – Reay, Halkirk and Watten – remain as VAs.
The aim of the exercise, in Mr Macleod’s words, is “to make the Highlands and Islands’ case to the Scottish Government, the UK Government, and the EU for an equitable system of agricultural support for Scotland following the CAP reform exercise”.
He continued: “The Highlands and Islands are notable by their absence from these stakeholder groups at the moment and the group feels it is important that at least we have a seat at the table and are party to the discussions that are going on.”
By directing support towards the VAs, the group and the council hope that further decline in agriculture – the falling away of sheep and cattle numbers, and the abandonment of hard-won acres to rushes and bog – will be stopped and stabilised. “Scotland is the lowest recipient of rural development funding in the whole EU,” said Mr Macleod. “The UK is well down the list but Scotland is the lowest. And Scotland should, of course, press for a more equitable share.”
The councillors on LESS were roused to think of other aspects to the subject. Graeme Smith (independent members group, Wick) asked about climate change affecting the VAs and if there are incentives to adopt new livestock breeds.
“Looking at climate change,” he said, “I don’t think maintaining stocking levels just now is necessarily the best way forward unless we have breeds appropriate to the area and changing climate.”
Iain Ross (Lib Dem, East Sutherland and Edderton) thought the council should be careful to harmonise its representations to Holyrood. “How do we cater where there is an overlap with other areas,” he asked, “if we were trying to promote, for instance, more integrated land use?” He also mentioned forestry and the aspiration to increase the area of forest cover, and went on, “If I had any ambition, I think it would be to see farmers embracing some forestry options. I would like to see Robert Coghill there taking great pride in his trees.”
Mr Coghill (ind, Landward Caithness), who had earlier spoken about the importance of VAs for birds, nodded in agreement.
Mr Macleod acknowledged the importance of all these caveats but Richard Durham (ind, Tain and Easter Ross) reminded everyone that there was a danger in getting caught up at this stage in “integrated land use”.
“This is a long political game,” he stressed.
