Arable Area Payments Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997

Keeping and retention of records by a farmer

13.—(1) A farmer shall retain all commercial documents relating to seed sown on land in respect of which he makes an application for compensatory payment from the time at which he makes such application (or the time at which the commercial document concerned comes into his possession, if later) until the end of the fourth year following the year of harvest relating to that seed.

(2) A farmer who sows farm-saved seed on land in respect of which he makes an application for compensatory payment shall retain all commercial documents-

(a) relating to the seed which produced the crop from which the farm-saved seed was obtained; and

(b) relating to the cleaning and dressing of the farm-saved seed,

from the time at which he makes such application (or the time at which the commercial document concerned comes into his possession, if later) until the end of the fourth year following the year of harvest relating to that seed.

(3) Where a farmer claims a compensatory payment in respect of land set aside for non-food purposes, he shall retain any delivery note relating to the crop grown on that land from the time at which it comes into his possession until the end of the fourth year following the year of harvest relating to that crop.

(4) A farmer who makes an application under regulation 6 which is approved by the Department shall retain all documents relating to that application from the time he makes the application until the end of the fourth year following the year in which the approval is granted.

(5) For the purposes of this regulation—

(a) the year of harvest relating to seed is the calendar year in which the crop grown from that seed is harvested, destroyed or otherwise removed from the land, and the year of harvest relating to any crop is the calendar year in which that crop is so harvested, destroyed or otherwise removed;

(b) a “commercial document” in relation to seed includes any invoice, seed label, sales note or delivery note relating to it, and (in relation to the cleaning and dressing of farm-saved seed) includes all invoices and delivery notes relating to such cleaning and dressing; and

(c) “farm-saved seed” is seed which is the product of a harvest on the holding on which it is sown.