The Department has published the list of approved items for TAMS III (Targeted Agricultural Mechanisation Scheme).

Following increasing pressure from agricultural lobbying groups and building organisations, the Department has revised the costs allowed for many items in light of cost inflation.

Animal housing and handling items have been revised upwards by up to 15% when compared to the April 2022.

Cattle and sheep housing

All associated beef housing, to include slatted and dry bedded areas, have received a 15% increase in reference costs, with dairy housing including cubicles on both slatted and solid flooring receiving the same percentage increase.

Bull pens, calving pens and isolation pens have been included in the scheme, with calf accommodation with and without penning listed as eligible for grant aid.

Unroofed and roofed feed passages, as well as suspended feed passages, have been listed, along with slatted feed areas. All the above items have received a 15% increase in reference costs.

Sheep and goat accommodation have seen reference costs jump by 15%.

Farmers can avail of the new TAMS III grant for both slatted and loose bedded accommodation, with separate costings for penned and non-penned investments.

Handling equipment

All handling equipment that was grant aid eligible for TAMS II has been carried forward into TAMS III. With regard to bovine handling, a range of permanent and mobile races, skulling gates, batch AI crushes, leg hoists and head scoops, as well as any concrete works or the roofing of handling units, are eligible for the new TAMS grant.

All those bar a concrete floor for a cattle enclosure have seen their reference costs increase by 15%.

Sheep fencing has seen a 10% increase reference costs per metre. / Donal O'Leary

Flooring for cattle yards has seen a smaller increase of 5%.

Sheep penning, both mobile and fixed, has seen all costs associated with it increase by 15%. However, EID reading equipment has surprisingly seen no increase on the April 2022 figure.

Both ordinary and mountain sheep mesh fencing with one strand of wire have seen a 10% increase in reference costs, with new costs of €7.36 and €9.61/m respectively.

Gateways have seen a 15% increase in reference costs, rising to €388.70 per gateway.