Scottish Government

Flock Baseline Number (Stock Disposal)

• If this is your first agri-environment scheme application containing stock disposal proposals, you must provide the total number of ewes and gimmers recorded in the business' or Common Grazings' flock record as at 1 January in the year of application plus the previous two years prior to the application.
• If you have had a previous stock disposal agreement, base line stock numbers should be available to us from the relevant scheme file. Partner organisations may need to consult one another to obtain these figures.
• The Reference Year taken for baseline data will be the year with the lowest number of ewes and gimmers (Base Flock Number). The agreed ewe reduction will be deducted from this Base Flock Number unless you can produce valid evidence to support using a different year . This is to avoid anyone artificially increasing their ewe numbers prior to joining the scheme. If the number of ewes and gimmers maintained by the business or on the common grazings in the Reference Year was less than that in the year of application then a number of ewes will have to be disposed of without a payment in return in order to reduce numbers to the Base Flock Number.
• The total number of ewes and gimmers to be removed from the moorland and business or common grazings for the duration of the contract in return for a stock disposal payment is termed the Stock Reduction Figure.
• If this is your first agri-environment scheme application containing stock disposal proposals, the ewe numbers which were maintained by the business or on the common grazings in the Reference Year must be reduced by at least the Stock Reduction Figure in accordance with the plan. The resulting number of ewes and gimmers is termed the Reduced Flock Size for the business or common grazings and you must not exceed it during the lifetime of the agreement.
• If you previously had an agri-environment agreement containing stock disposal proposals and wish to reduce sheep numbers further, you must provide clear evidence of the benefit of this action, explaining why the previous reduction was not sufficient. The Stock Reduction Figure must be deducted from the previous Reduced Flock Size to give a revised Reduced Flock Size.
• If you already have an agri-environment agreement containing stock disposal proposals and wish to continue to receive payments for maintaining the flock at the Reduced Flock Size, this will be acceptable where the maintained reduction is required to keep the target area in good condition.
• The ewes must be disposed of and not transferred to any other part of the business' holdings.
• We will record the Reduced Flock Size in the Points to Note section of your contract so that it is absolutely clear what the maximum numbers in the flock can be for the duration of the contract.

Flock Baseline Number (Away Wintering)

• For proposals including Away Wintering, you must provide the flock records maintained by the business' or Common Grazings in the year of application plus the previous two years prior to the application.
• This is to establish that there has not been an artificial increase in the numbers of stock in the year prior to application and also establish whether the business has traditionally away wintered ewes or hoggs.
• The payment will make a contribution towards the extra cost of away wintering sheep which would otherwise graze on moorland areas.
• If records show that the business has traditionally away wintered sheep, these animals cannot be contributing to the suppression of the target species. Away wintering can therefore only be paid for a number of sheep over and above the number which have previously been away wintered.
• If you already have an agri-environment agreement containing away wintering proposals and wish to continue to receive payments for away wintering this will be acceptable where the maintained away wintering is required to keep the target area in good condition.