The 21 November deadline for farmers and their advisers to submit their Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) applications came under pressure at the Irish Farmers Journal CAP information event in Carlow on Thursday night.
Department of Agriculture officials were pushed on the pressures facing farmers and their advisers to get their ACRES applications in on time.
South Leinster Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) chair Francie Gorman said: “The ACRES deadline, it has to be extended. Do it now and don’t wait until the last couple of days before the deadline comes to extend it. It needs to be extended immediately.”
“Yes, we’re looking at that and it will be notified as soon as possible once we have a better line of site of where we are [with applications],” Department official John Muldowney said in response.
The Irish Farmers Journal has revealed that there are in the region of 4,000 ACRES applications submitted to the Department to date and another 11,000 in progress.
Another 15,000 applications must be completed if the 30,000 places available are to be filled by the deadline.
‘Not far off the mark’
On the ACRES deadline, Muldowney said that 15,000 applications is “not far off where we need to be”, but acknowledged that there is “still work that needs to be done”.
However, he highlighted that “we have been working on this all summer” and said the Department will “continue to monitor the situation”, as it works “to get to that benchmark of 30,000”.
South Leinster IFA chair Francie Gorman. \ Claire Nash
“The one thing we need to be conscious of is the longer we push out the date, we’re putting at risk then our ability to move all the data from the ACRES system into the new BISS system in terms of all the validations that are working then, in terms of all the payments that are due. And, I suppose, utilising that advisory capacity for what’s necessary,” Muldowney said.
CAP meeting
Some 350 farmers attended the Irish Farmers Journal CAP information event in the Woodford Dolmen Hotel in Carlow on Thursday night.
Beef, sheep, dairy and tillage farmers were present, with good representation from counties across the southeast.
The event was the second in the Irish Farmers Journal series, with the next event to take place in the Ard Rí House Hotel in Tuam, Co Galway, at 7.30pm next Wednesday 9 November.
The last of the series will be held on Tuesday 15 November at 7.30pm in the Errigal Country House Hotel, Cootehill, Co Cavan. Farmers can register for both events here.
The meeting in Carlow included presentations from our sheep and schemes editor Darren Carty, beef editor Adam Woods, dairy editor Aidan Brennan and tillage editor Andy Doyle.
The sectoral editors presented case studies and examples to demonstrate how the new CAP will work for farmers in each sector.
Department of Agriculture officials also joined the team and shared specific detail on CAP schemes, responding to farmers’ questions from the floor.
Organics
Also at Thursday's event, Department official Francis Morrin reminded farmers of the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) and said that it is currently open for applications. He said that while “organics might not be for you” that farmers would “be mad not to go look at it”.
Department of Agriculture official Francis Morrin. \ Donal O' Leary
He described how the scheme now has the “same amount of money that once went into the ANCs”, some €250m in the next CAP budget.
Morrin also pointed out that choosing to convert to organics will give farmers priority access to ACRES and that it qualifies farmers for the 60% TAMS rate.
Read more
Pressure on to get farmers into ACRES
The 21 November deadline for farmers and their advisers to submit their Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) applications came under pressure at the Irish Farmers Journal CAP information event in Carlow on Thursday night.
Department of Agriculture officials were pushed on the pressures facing farmers and their advisers to get their ACRES applications in on time.
South Leinster Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) chair Francie Gorman said: “The ACRES deadline, it has to be extended. Do it now and don’t wait until the last couple of days before the deadline comes to extend it. It needs to be extended immediately.”
“Yes, we’re looking at that and it will be notified as soon as possible once we have a better line of site of where we are [with applications],” Department official John Muldowney said in response.
The Irish Farmers Journal has revealed that there are in the region of 4,000 ACRES applications submitted to the Department to date and another 11,000 in progress.
Another 15,000 applications must be completed if the 30,000 places available are to be filled by the deadline.
‘Not far off the mark’
On the ACRES deadline, Muldowney said that 15,000 applications is “not far off where we need to be”, but acknowledged that there is “still work that needs to be done”.
However, he highlighted that “we have been working on this all summer” and said the Department will “continue to monitor the situation”, as it works “to get to that benchmark of 30,000”.
South Leinster IFA chair Francie Gorman. \ Claire Nash
“The one thing we need to be conscious of is the longer we push out the date, we’re putting at risk then our ability to move all the data from the ACRES system into the new BISS system in terms of all the validations that are working then, in terms of all the payments that are due. And, I suppose, utilising that advisory capacity for what’s necessary,” Muldowney said.
CAP meeting
Some 350 farmers attended the Irish Farmers Journal CAP information event in the Woodford Dolmen Hotel in Carlow on Thursday night.
Beef, sheep, dairy and tillage farmers were present, with good representation from counties across the southeast.
The event was the second in the Irish Farmers Journal series, with the next event to take place in the Ard Rí House Hotel in Tuam, Co Galway, at 7.30pm next Wednesday 9 November.
The last of the series will be held on Tuesday 15 November at 7.30pm in the Errigal Country House Hotel, Cootehill, Co Cavan. Farmers can register for both events here.
The meeting in Carlow included presentations from our sheep and schemes editor Darren Carty, beef editor Adam Woods, dairy editor Aidan Brennan and tillage editor Andy Doyle.
The sectoral editors presented case studies and examples to demonstrate how the new CAP will work for farmers in each sector.
Department of Agriculture officials also joined the team and shared specific detail on CAP schemes, responding to farmers’ questions from the floor.
Organics
Also at Thursday's event, Department official Francis Morrin reminded farmers of the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) and said that it is currently open for applications. He said that while “organics might not be for you” that farmers would “be mad not to go look at it”.
Department of Agriculture official Francis Morrin. \ Donal O' Leary
He described how the scheme now has the “same amount of money that once went into the ANCs”, some €250m in the next CAP budget.
Morrin also pointed out that choosing to convert to organics will give farmers priority access to ACRES and that it qualifies farmers for the 60% TAMS rate.
Read more
Pressure on to get farmers into ACRES
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