Rural Payments and Services

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The Stock Disposal option supports the regeneration of heather and other moorland vegetation by reducing grazing pressure.

High herbivore pressure can suppress the growth of heather and other plants, and lead to loss of cover of these plants in favour of more grazing-resistant species.

It can also result in excessive trampling which in turn could lead to the erosion of the peat soil. In some cases grazing management alone is not enough to reduce the pressure to levels required for habitat improvement.

In these cases reducing the number of sheep may bring about the necessary improvement.

The best results from a stock reduction will be achieved by a targeted effort to reduce grazing to a desired level in a desired place.

You will need a good understanding of the number of sheep grazing-specific habitat areas, and the seasonality of this grazing, to draw up the stock reduction aspect of your moorland management plan.

Once the flock has been reduced, the natural instinct of the remaining sheep will be to redistribute and fill the space.

To avoid this redistribution, discourage sheep from hefting to the target area or encourage them to graze elsewhere by changing your shepherding, feeding practices and other moorland activities.

In planning a stock reduction, the effects on the deer population and any cattle grazing should be taken into account as both are likely to be attracted to areas with fewer sheep.

A moorland management plan should cover these issues and any steps you take to make any adjustments.

In your plan, provide details of the total number of ewes and gimmers recorded on both the holding and the business as of 1 January for the year of application, plus the previous two years.

The reference year taken for baseline data will be the year with the lowest number of ewes and gimmers (baseline flock number). The agreed reduction will be deducted from this baseline flock number unless you can produce valid evidence to support using a different year.

The resulting number of ewes and gimmers is termed the reduced flock size for the business or common grazings.

The ewes must be disposed of and not transferred to any other part of the business holdings. If you have had a previous stock disposal agreement, baseline flock number should be available to us from the relevant scheme file.

A supplement of £8.08 per hectare per year will be available where the stock disposal will affect your ability to claim Scottish Upland Sheep Support.

It is proposed that Scottish Upland Sheep Support will be payable on ewe hoggs born on Scottish holdings which have 80 per cent or more of their agricultural land in Scotland’s Basic Payment Region Three and less than 200 hectares of agricultural land in Scotland’s Basic Payment Region One.

The supplement will only be payable on the proportion of stock disposal payments which take you below one ewe hogg for every four hectares of Region Three land.

If you already have an agri-environment agreement supporting stock disposal and wish to continue to receive payments for maintaining the flock at the reduced flock size, this is acceptable where the maintained reduction is required to keep the target area in good condition. In this case, the reduction number you can claim for will be based on your previous commitment.

If you wish to reduce sheep numbers further, you must explain the benefit of this action. In this case the stock reduction figure would be deducted from the previous reduced flock size to give a revised reduced flock size.

If you participate in the Stock Disposal option through the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme you may be eligible to receive the Scottish Upland Sheep Support (SUSS) supplement to compensate you for the support you may have been eligible to receive through Pillar 1 direct payments if you had not disposed of stock.

To be eligible for the Pillar 1 SUSS scheme at least 80 per cent of your agricultural land must be in Payment Region Three and less than 200 hectares of your agricultural land in Payment Region One. The number of ewe hoggs you can claim will depend on the area of Payment Region Three land you have. One ewe hogg will need four hectares of Payment Region Three land to support it.

To be eligible for the stock disposal SUSS supplement you must meet the Pillar 1 SUSS scheme eligibility rules.

You can use this calculator to help you check your eligibility for the SUSS supplement and calculate the number of ewes and gimmers eligible for stock disposal and the SUSS supplement payments based on the number of ewes and gimmers you plan to dispose of.

The supplement will be based on the difference in the assumed number of ewe hoggs you could claim for SUSS after stock disposal, compared to the assumed number that that you could have claimed prior to the disposal. It is limited to the proportion of stock disposal payments which take you below one ewe hogg for every four hectares of Payment Region Three land.

The SUSS supplement calculator assumes 80 per cent lambs weaned, 50 per cent female and 97 per cent survival to one year old.

The following examples demonstrate scenarios where you may or may not be eligible to claim the supplementary payment.

For more information see A Guide to Upland Habitats: Surveying Land Management Impacts - Volume 1 from Scottish Natural Heritage.

Stocking levels appropriate to each site will vary with factors such as aspect, soil and vegetation and habitat type, local climate and altitude. The Moorland Management option provides guidance for grazing for different moorland habitats.

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