A new scheme set to pay suckler farmers for improving herd health and husbandry has been launched by Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue.

The National Beef Welfare Scheme (NBWS) will pay participant farmers €50 per cow-and-calf pair.

Farmers will have to carry out two measures to receive payment - feeding meal to calves four weeks before and two weeks after weaning and testing animals for the presence of infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR).

Payments

Under the new scheme, farmers will be paid €35 per animal for meal feeding calves, up to a maximum of 40 calves. The pre- and post-weaning meal feeding is aimed at reducing calf stress at weaning time.

For the IBR testing, farmers must engage with their vet to select, blood sample and test up to 20 animals - cows or calves - for IBR antibodies.

Under SCEP and the NBWS, farmers could receive a payment of €200/suckler cow. \ Houston Green

Where a herd has 20 or more bovines, 20 animals must be tested. If a herd has less than 20 bovines, then all must be tested. Farmers will be paid up to €300 per herd, depending on the number of animals tested for IBR.

Farmers who take part in the NBWS as well as the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) will earn €200/cow-calf pair, Minister McConalogue highlighted.

Commitment

The Minister explained that the new suckler scheme promotes calf nutrition and herd health.

“Meal feeding is important for calves to thrive and this scheme assists farmers to cover increased costs in caring for their livestock at weaning stage.

“We are also targeting IBR because it is a highly contagious viral condition affecting cattle. The scheme incentivises farmers to conduct a snapshot test of their herd, to gauge its prevalence in the national herd,” he said.

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue. \ Philip Doyle

Minister McConalogue suggested that by coupling payments under the new NBWS with those under SCEP, he has delivered on his promise of a €200/cow support payment for suckler farmers, committed to in Budget 2023.

Farmers must apply to the new NBWS scheme online through agfood.ie before the closing date of 12 September.

The Minister highlighted that there is no facility for late applications because scheme actions must be completed before 1 November 2023 to allow for payments to participants to issue in mid-December 2023.