Tillage farmers across the country are assessing the list of eligible items under the new tillage TAMS scheme which was published by the department on Wednesday.

The €26m scheme provides grant aid at 60% for qualifying young farmers and 40% for all other farmers. The scheme is now open for applications and closes on 30 June.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, IFA grain committee chair Liam Dunne said that there was strong demand for the scheme among farmers.

“There is a fair amount of interest in the scheme. The €26m fund could get used up fairly quick,” he said.

Similar to many farmers across the country, Dunne said that he is still considering his options of applying for the scheme. “I was thinking about a GPS system but I will have to look at it more closely,” the Kildare man said.

Costs

He pointed out that although the grant funding will cover a significant amount of the costs of investment, the rest of the money has to be found by tillage farmers who have come through a difficult year.

It was point made clear by Donegal tillage farmer Peter Lynch. “It is coming on the back of a bad year with prices and weather. The additional 40% or 60% of the costs still have to be covered, but then you can’t make long term decisions based on one or two bad years,” he said.

Lynch and Dunne said that the range of items available for grant funding will be of interest to many tillage farmers and that some would have been holding off investments until the scheme opened.

However, Dunne added that there would be some disappointment that precision fertiliser spreaders didn’t make the final list.

Louth IFA grain committee representative John Carroll said that many farmers were still analysing the eligible items list. “Farmers will be looking at it and considering what to do next. The paperwork involved with it is not simple as well,” he said.

Crisis fund

Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil agriculture spokesperson Charlie McConalogue has welcomed the introduction of the tillage TAMS scheme, but has said that it cannot be used to replace a crisis fund for tillage farmers affected by weather last year.

He said Minister Creed's department is "already running a huge underspend for 2016. It is not unreasonable for him to use €5m of this to compensate hard-pressed farmer".

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