Farm Finance: farmers and contractors in TAMS limbo

From talking to farmers and contractors at the Ploughing championships, the current limbo that Targeted Agricultural Modernisations Scheme (TAMS) applicants find themselves in is seeing real uncertainty when it comes to investing.

We have heard cases where farmers in need of slurry storage facilities for the coming winter have been twice rolled over into the next tranche of the scheme.

These farmers are waiting anxiously for the next raft of approvals to issue.

When it comes to applicants getting approval, each application will be marked on several different criteria.

Farmers will receive marks if they are eligible for ANC. The will receive 0.5 marks/ha of land between 5ha and 50ha.

Therefore, larger farmers will rank higher in the selection criteria.

Each project will also receive marks for the more the reference cost is below the scheme ceiling, among other criteria.

Approvals issuing

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that approvals have issued to some applicants over the past week, while others have been sent to local offices for final checks prior to approval.

These are for applicants who applied to the 14th tranche of the scheme that ran from 6 April to 5 July.

Nearly 11 weeks later and farmers are still waiting to find out if their application was successful.

Applications are being prioritised in the current round of TAMS

For farmers who have already experienced a rollover to another tranche of the scheme, there is no guarantee that these will be approved in this round either, as all applicants are assessed individually again, with no special preference given to applications that have been rolled over.

“Applications are being prioritised in the current round of TAMS, which is likely to delay approval until October.

"Older farmers are being left in limbo as a result of this, with applications submitted as early as March of this year left unprocessed,” according to Tom Canning of the Agricultural Consultants Association (ACA).

This oversubscription has led to applicants being rolled over into the next tranche of the scheme

This current tranche of the scheme closes on 4 October. After this date, applications to the current tranche will all be assessed.

Currently, there is no clear indication as to whether this tranche will be oversubscribed, as the last two tranches of the scheme have been.

This oversubscription has led to applicants being rolled over into the next tranche of the scheme.

This could add an additional three months to the time taken for a farmer to get approval for their project.

Meal bins

The news last January that meal bins would be eligible for grant aid for farmers of all enterprises was a very positive step. However, it had the unintended consequence of slowing down farmers buying meal bins for the first half of the year, according to meal bin manufacturers, as farmers waited to see if they would receive approval for grant aid through the scheme.

“Farmers desperately trying to develop facilities or purchasing equipment under the scheme are uncertain as to whether they will receive approval under TAMS in 2019,” Canning said.

It is vital that farmers who are not likely to proceed with the planned projects withdraw their applications as soon as possible

He continued: “The Department have issued approval over the last number of years and, for various reasons, farmers have not proceeded with the approved projects.

“The Department are now in a position where they do not know how much of this money allocated to these applicants will be actually drawn down and it is limiting their ability to issue approvals.

"It is vital that farmers who are not likely to proceed with the planned projects withdraw their applications as soon as possible to free up monies to allow other farmers to proceed with much needed investments.”