Mr. Michael Hennessey:

What sort of living would he like? It depends on whether the land is owned or leased. Some would argue that a dairy farmer can run a farm with 80 cows, others would suggest it needs 120 but it depends on where it is. For a tillage farmer on his own, one could argue it would be 600 or 700 acres but it depends on how much he owns and how much he does not own. A farmer who wants to make a very good living and to have a big single farm payment would probably need closer to 1,000 acres than 500.

Another question was on the negative effects of greening. When it came out, there were a lot of rules and regulations stating what farmers had to and could not do. Compliance on the part of farmers on the ground has been extremely high, however, and there have been fewer than 100 breaches of the greening rules. It has, however, made a bit of a difference to a number of different farmers. They used to block land for winter wheat for one year and for another crop in following years, but they now have to subdivide it into different sections for the number of crops in a particular year.

That is adding costs. How many farmers is this happening to? The smaller farmers - those with fewer than 30 acres - are losing out while the bigger guys have more than three crops anyway. The big guys have more than enough environmentally-friendly areas, EFAs. They need 5%. The average is approximately 7.5% and most have more than 12% so it is not a big issue for them. I do not think it is has had a big negative impact generally but it has had an impact on individual farmers.