More farmers will be BDGP compliant

More farmers are set to become compliant with the replacement requirement of 20% of animals in the herd being classified as four-star and five-star by 2018 and 50% by 2020 following changes to ‘Requirement Four- Replacement Strategy’ of the terms and conditions of the programme.

Speaking to theIrish Farmers Journal, IFA national livestock chairman Henry Burns said: “The Department of Agriculture has confirmed to the IFA they are changing this requirement to allow four-star and five-star animals that are currently in a participant’s herd qualify to meet 2018 and 2020 replacement requirements.

"This should help more farmers meet the requirements and remove the necessity for farmers to sell good four and five star cows and buy younger animals just to meet the requirements of the scheme,"Burns said.

The move is set to make it easier for farmers to comply with at least the 2018 requirement of the programme bringing a far higher percentage of farmers into the category of already complying with the replacement strategy and allowing more time for farmers to make breeding decisions to meet 2020 requirements.

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that the rule is only relevant to cows in an applicant’s herd before the closing date of 5 June 2015.

This means that for animals purchased after this date to be taken into account for calculations, they must adhere to the original conditions of the programme including:

1) being four and five stars on the replacement index (on a within or cross breed basis) at the time of purchase (for heifers bought into the herd) or subsequently genotyped four or five star for non-genotyped heifers;

2) being at least 16 months of age; and

3) born in 2013 or later to be taken into account.

Further changes

While Burns welcomes this week’s moves he is looking for further changes to the Replacement Strategy.

“The IFA campaign over the last eight weeks on the beef data and genomics programme has secured important changes and clarifications which will be very important in encouraging farmers to stay in the programme going forward. But, there are further changes needed to ensure strong participation including moving the replacement strategy requirement from four and five stars to three, four and five stars.”

Burns also told the Irish Farmers Journal that the IFA has also this week secured a range of other changes/clarifications from the Department including;

Six year rule – “the Minister has confirmed to IFA that if a farmer applicant sells his land or transfers it by inheritance or gift and a result leaves the programme, there will be no clawback of funds.

2014 Base year – “the Minister has also confirmed to IFA that 2015 may be used by new entrants. The Minister has made it clear that if force majeure or other circumstances in 2014 had an adverse impact on stocking levels and as a result application numbers (cow numbers), this will be taken into consideration on a case by case basis.

On genotyping he said “the IFA has been working on reducing genotyping costs with the Department of Agriculture and ICBF. We are determined the €30 genotyping cost must be reduced and we feel strongly the 60% genotyping requirement was set too high and must be reduced by 20% to 25%.