Over the past two months, the figure of active participants has moved from 28,807 to 27,790. The latest figure from the Department of active participants in the BDGP is 26,658. This figure takes into account the 2,939 applicants who left the scheme after the deadline for applications closed in June, and the 66 farmers who subsequently re-entered it and were accepted.Some 29,531 valid applications were received for the programme in June, representing almost half of the number of suckler farmers in Ireland.