The broader details released last Thursday will help farmers begin to plan ahead but NSA believes still more detail is needed to be worked on along with clearer and deeper offers such as proper recognition and reward for traditional commons management, agroforestry, and health schemes and screening.

Following a meeting of the NSA's English committee last week, the Association now believes there are a number of other important wins that can be achieved making connections between the new Defra programmes, the UK's export requirements, and farm assurance.

Further gains NSA consider now achievable also include:

• Use of the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway review visits to satisfy the requirements of farm assurance to have a vet visit and review as well as flock health planning requirements, freeing the farmer and the vet up to do something more practical and dynamic than many of the standard 'shelf sitting' flock health plans.
• Use of the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway review visits to cover off the forthcoming veterinary attestations to facilitate export trade to the EU.
• Use of the heavily Government invested Livestock Information Programme (LIP) to give online assurance of veterinary attestations to avoid new reams of paper forms.
• Acceptance of involvement in the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Countryside Stewardship as meeting the requirements of any future new farm assurance environmental/green module.

NSA Chief Executive, Phil Stocker, says: "We really do now have an opportunity to streamline some of the demands being made on farmers and get some added value from these new Defra schemes. For years we have been talking about earned recognition and it's been frustrating practical examples have been difficult to find. Often the best we can do is that farmers, as part of assurance schemes, receive a lower number of outside body inspections, but the problem with this is that farmers don't notice it and it is marginal in its benefit.

"What we now have are clear opportunities to think of earned recognition in a different way and use involvement in these Defra schemes to satisfy some of the requirements needed (or being discussed) by Farm Assurance bodies such as using the Pathway review visits to meet the requirements of assurance flock or herd health planning, or by Defra itself to encompass veterinary attestations to satisfy export requirements to the EU. These are the sorts of things that would be welcomed by farmers, and possibly improve the reputation of Red Tractor Assurance in the eyes of its scheme members."