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The details of the €100m BEAM scheme were announced yesterday by Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed and include a number of conditions that a farmer has to meet. These include membership of:
1 The Bord Bia Quality Assurance Scheme.
Or
2 A DAFM agri-environmental scheme.
Along with this, they must reduce the level of production of bovine livestock manure nitrogen per farm by 5%
Membership of 1 or 2 must be attained by the time of application or before any payment is issued.
The scheme is targeted towards beef farmers. According to the Department, farmers must have a valid herd number with eligible bovine animals and have submitted a BPS application in 2018 to be eligible.
Dairy herds will not be eligible for the scheme, nor will dealer or agent herds. The Irish Farmers Journal understands that once a farmer is identified as a co-op supplier, they will be excluded.
The maximum payment per farm will be €11,600 where at least 40 sucklers calved in 2018 and 100 animals were finished between 24 September 2018 and 10 May 2019.
The average payment on suckler to weanling farms will be €553, while the average payment on finishing farms will be €1,819 per herd if all eligible farms apply for the scheme. It is unclear as to what happens to the scheme payment rates if it is under-subscribed.
How can I reduce my nitrogen output by 5%?
One of the conditions of the scheme is to reduce organic nitrogen output per farm by 5% based on a defined reference period as chosen by the Department of Agriculture.
For example, if the calendar year of 2018 was chosen and a farmer had an average of 100 one- to two-year-old animals in their herd for every month during that time, this would equate to 100 x 57kg of organic nitrogen for the 12 months which is total of 5,700kg of organic nitrogen during this period.
A 5% reduction in this figure is 285kg. So if five fewer animals were purchased on this farm or if the 100 animals were finished one month younger, this would fulfil this criteria.
The reference period that the Department will use for nitrogen calculation is not yet known. The Irish Farmers Journal understands that exporting slurry or renting additional land will not be counted as a reduction in total notrogen output.
Why was this reference period chosen?
The fund was applied for due to the poor beef price that finishers have had to take from autumn 2018 to spring 2019 due to a variety of factors including Brexit uncertainty. Animals slaughtered outside of these dates will not be eligible for the scheme. The date for the closure of the reference period was chosen as 10 May as the scheme was announced around this date.
What do I need to do now?
The Irish Government will have to notify the European Commission of the measures being taken as detailed above by 31 July. Application forms will be available and farmers will need to apply to be accepted into the scheme. Payment will be issued in due course based on numbers of cattle but may be clawed back at a later date if some or all of the criteria for the scheme are not met.
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