The Single Application Form which has been the subject of much debate in recent months, is clearly more complex this time, especially where applicants have to complete sections on the Young Farmers Payment and New Entrants schemes.

For some, the process has been straightforward, especially if there were no changes to the land area since last year’s forms were issued.

However for a number of reasons, there is a big delay in the submission of Single Application Forms this year. There has been considerable confusion over the information to be submitted on the forms, especially in terms of the field areas and where landowners were becoming active farmers after a lengthy period of letting out the land.

Land eligibility is also a major concern for many as over declaring and under declaring land field areas could penalise applicants. This often relates to maps which may not show the area which the farmer expects.

DARD reported that by Monday of this week, May 11, just four days before the closing date tomorrow(Firday), 16,128 Single Applications had been received by DARD out of almost 30,000 expected.

Of those already submitted, 9,127 were submitted online and 7,001 on paper.

A spokesman for DARD stated: “These figures change on a daily basis as we approach the closing date of May 15 2015.” Gemma McMahon, who provides an Agricultural Consultancy Service, says one of the biggest issues she has discovered with some of her clients was that the 2015 maps were not correct or that forms received by some farmers were not pre-printed.

“Farmers are lost with the issues as well as with requirements of sons and daughters, year of establishment and new warnings on land eligibility,” she explained.” Gemma says there is a huge onus on the applicants to get it right this year, especially those who are applying for the Young Farmer Payment or the New Entrant payment.

“Banks and partnership agreements between son or daughter is a binding issue and in some cases I have advised clients not to go ahead with this in their case,” she explained.

“This is only working if the young person is taking over the business,” she suggested.

She said farmers have two weeks beyond tomorrow’s closing date to make corrections to their forms but she said it was vital this year to check forms and ensure everything is right.

DARD explained in recent weeks how land eligibility will be important to get right on application forms this year.

They advised that when a claim on eligible land is made, that farmers must make accurate deductions for ineligible vegetation. A spokesman stated: “Field boundaries and woodland must also be considered when determining the eligibility of land. In order to help you to make an accurate claim, DARD has recently published the ‘Guide to Land Eligibility 2015’ booklet.” Ineligible vegetation can be scrub, bracken, rush or woodland/trees and where field boundaries are taken into account, that hedges or stone walls are not more than two metres from their centre at the base.

“It is important to remember that landscape features, dry stone walls, ditches or sheughs, hedgerows including trees in hedgerows and earthbanks, are protected under Cross-Compliance. “Small areas of ineligible vegetation (less than 0.01 ha) may not have been captured in the Maximum Eligible Area (MEA) provided to you and may need to be deducted from your claim if collectively they are greater than 0.01 ha. If the total ineligible area of the field does not exceed 0.01ha then no deduction is required,” the DARD spokesperson stated.

The potential increase in payments for some farmers or the potential to lessen the big reductions in payments for others has driven the land rental market this year with some land lettings going for well in excess of £310 an acre with mediocre land going to just under £200 an acre. Yet the entitlement value at its maximum in seven years time will be worth just around £97 an acre when converted at the euro rate of 73p.

Many farmers are in desperate search of extra land to spread their total subsidy with some landowners demanding 50 per cent up front and the other 50 per cent to be paid in June.

Considering the poor spring weather this year, many farmers have not even turned out cattle yet, now at the middle of May, six weeks after the starting time for rented land agreements.

This will put further pressure on farmers in a challenging year.