Macra na Feirme will look for an expansion of young farmer reliefs, an early slaughter beef finisher payment and the introduction of a farm income volatility tool in its pre-Budget submission to Government over the coming weeks.

Macra will push for the introduction of a beef finisher payment scheme to incentivise beef farmers to slaughter cattle earlier when it meets with Government representatives ahead of Budget 2023. Payments in the range of €75-€150 per head have been proposed along a graduated payment scale based off slaughter age.

A VAT exemption for sexed semen, animal vaccines, farm safety equipment and faecal egg sampling will also be pitched by the young farmers’ group.

On land mobility, Macra will seek an extension of stamp duty relief for land transfers within registered farm partnerships and extend the relief on the purchase of land to the maximum age of 40.

Its submission will seek to push Government to introduce grant aid for small-scale on-farm anaerobic digestion (AD) units and solar projects to better incentivise farmers to adopt these renewable technologies.

Also being sought is a mechanism that would allow farmers to deposit a percentage of their farm income and re-access these deposits in years of lower farm income, which would lessen volatility in the sector.