After six years of co-ordinating deals between young farmers and retiring landowners, the land mobility scheme in NI will close today (31 August).

The scheme was led by the Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster, but was heavily reliant on funding from DAERA.

A spokesperson for the department confirmed that their “financial contribution” to the project concludes at the end of August.

The land mobility scheme was managed by John McCallister and led to 125 separate deals, covering 19,000 acres of land.

“The bonds forged, the skills exchanged, and the innovations witnessed during this journey will continue to shape the future of our agricultural landscape,” McCallister said.

DAERA has said a follow-on scheme, to be called “Farming for the Generations”, is to be launched in autumn, as part of its new system of farm support.

However, the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) has criticised DAERA for how the transition between the two land mobility schemes is being handled.

UFU deputy president William Irvine said he was “extremely disappointed” by the sudden end to the original scheme, and he questioned the proposed timeline for the new initiative.

“The specifics remain unclear and now months will pass by without anything being done. Stopping the scheme only to start it up again seems very clumsy and unfair to those who have live cases within the old scheme,” he said.

“It would not have broken any budgets to fund a transition for a few months and due to DAERA’s inability to meet previous deadlines, we are concerned that autumn could soon move to the start of 2024,” Irvine added.