Beef Carbon Reduction (BCR) scheme payments to farmers for eligible cattle slaughtered in 2025 are due to start issuing from Monday 9 March, a DAERA spokesperson has confirmed.

The current best estimate from the department is that 265,987 cattle met the conditions for the scheme in 2025, which at a payment rate of £75 per head, works out at a total payout just shy of £20m. With 7,357 farm businesses thought to be eligible for payment, that is an average of £2,711 per farm.

The number of eligible cattle and eligible farm businesses is down from the first year of the scheme in 2024. Back then, 297,658 cattle across 8,080 farm businesses met eligibility requirements.

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Part of that reduction is due to the lower overall prime kill, which fell 6.3% from 391,300 head in 2024 to 366,579 in 2025.

However, changes to conditions around age at slaughter have also had an impact. In the first year, this was set at a maximum of 30 months, falling to a maximum of 28 months in 2025.

Analysis of the data shows that 76% of prime cattle met the conditions for the BCR payment in 2024, and this has reduced to 72.5% in 2025. In 2026, the maximum age at slaughter has dropped to 27 months.

However, there are other conditions to factor in, including that prime cattle must be NI born, so imports are ineligible.

The payment goes to the person who owns the animal for at least 60 days in the last 100 days before slaughter – in other words, cattle with multiple owners in the run up to slaughter don’t get the payment.

There are also a small number of cattle not claimed because some farmers have not opted into the scheme. In 2024, a total of 2,674 eligible cattle missed out on the payment from across 667 herds.