In this lull before the harvest and the autumn cattle purchasing, I am trying to come to terms with the future. I had expected that after the conclusion of the CAP talks, I would have a clear idea of what the shape of things to come would look like, but I am none the wiser as there is a lot of national discretion around the key issues.

The main money change is clearly going to be around the decline in the basic farm payment. The extra convergence deductions will reduce my payments up until 2030. I have no idea what the new environmental dimension will entail.

What I don’t know at this stage is if this 10% will go towards meeting my obligations under the new environmental scheme

Up to now, we met the 30% greening stipulation by observing the three-crop rule, regular soil sampling etc. One of the most important components of the requirements under the greening regime, which lasts until January 2023, was that at least 5% had to meet the Environmental Focus Area (EFA) category. But the end result was that just over 10% of the place was categorised with EFA status, based on the presence of hedges, ditches, watercourses etc.

What I don’t know at this stage is if this 10% will go towards meeting my obligations under the new environmental scheme, and of course if the carbon being accumulated will be credited to my account.

I am also in the dark as to how the “front loading“ will operate. Is it to be an extra payment/ha on the first so many hectares, regardless of the size of the rest of the farm, or does it only apply to farms below a certain size? Again, there are no details.

But it is clear that no matter how hard the minister tries, he is not going to please everyone

I am sure all of these questions will be answered over the next few months as the minister and his officials come to grips with the range of possible variations and the guidelines to be laid down in Brussels. But it is clear that no matter how hard the minister tries, he is not going to please everyone. An interesting question that will exercise those with bigger units or higher payments is – will contractor charges be treated the same as wages in deciding whether the upper payment limit should be adjusted on these farms?