Welsh farmers face massive hike in sheep dip disposal fees

Sheep farmers in Wales will see the cost of a permit for disposing of used dip increase to more than £3,700 on 1 July, but one farming union argues that the new charge – one of several approved by the Cardiff government – is at odds with an ambition to eradicate scab in the country.

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) said it was introducing the new charges to recover all the costs of its regulatory activities.

But unions have questioned the scale of those rises – in the case of disposing of spent or unused sheep dip from £402 to £3,728.

See also: Welsh farmers shocked by planned rises in environmental charges

The cost of new applications for farming installations for rearing pigs and poultry will rise from £7,322 to £9,270, and permit variations from £388 to £5,562.

The increases come after NRW raised its annual fee for managing licences by 6% on 1 April 2023.

“We want to recover all the costs of our regulation so that we can reinvest resources in more compliance activity and in preventing pollution happening in the first place,” the agency said.

“The outcome should be a fairer and more transparent charging system which will result in more effective protection and improvement of our natural environment.”

But the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) branded the new charges “unacceptable”.

An FUW spokesman said: “We have previously called for a more holistic approach to considering such charges given the wider benefits to public and animal health, when at least a proportion of these costs are paid by the public purse.

“However, it remains unacceptable to expect Welsh farmers to pay in excess of £3,700 for a permit to dispose of used sheep dip through land spreading when farmers in other countries, who are in direct competition with Welsh food producers, don’t experience anywhere near the same costs.’’

And there could be knock-on consequences for an ambition to improve animal health and welfare.

“This could have severe implications at a time when the Welsh government has recently awarded Coleg Sir Gar a three-year contract to support the industry to eradicate sheep scab in Wales,” the FUW spokesman said.