Questions answered on new suckler cow scheme

What do I have to do to get the £100 payment?

You actually don’t have to do a lot, other than opt-in to the scheme once it opens from 1 April 2025. The scheme is voluntary and you don’t have to get involved if you don’t want to, although farmers who do sign up, must also be eligible for a payment under the Farm Sustainability Transition Payment (replacement for the Basic Payment Scheme).

After that, it all comes down to calving events recorded on the NI Food Animal Information System (NIFAIS) for both beef-bred heifers and mature suckler cows.

What breeds are eligible for the payment?

There is nothing in the DAERA legislation that requires farmers to use specific beef-bred sires when producing calves. Instead, the only requirement around breed is that the mother of the calf must be registered as beef bred.

Listed at the back of the legislation are 71 eligible beef breeds, ranging from the likes of Limousin, Angus, Simmental and Charolais to rare breeds such as Irish Moile and Kerry. Also included on the list are Wagyu, Bison and Zebu. The main dairy breeds, such as Holstein, Jersey, Dairy Shorthorn and Ayrshire are all excluded.

What are the eligibility conditions for beef heifers?

For a beef bred heifer to receive the £100 payment, the animal must calve at a maximum of 34 months of age in the first year, falling to 32, 30 and 29 months over the next three years of the scheme.

So in the first year, a heifer calving on 1 April 2025, must have been born on or after 1 June 2022. A heifer born on 31 May 2022, is 34 months and 1 day old on 1 April 2025 and ineligible for the payment.

To help prevent any welfare issues with heifers calving too early, there is also a minimum age at first calving of 21 months.

What are the eligibility conditions for suckler cows?

For a suckler cow to receive the £100 payment, the animal must have a calving interval (CI) of a maximum of 415 days in the first year of the scheme, dropping to 405 days, 395 and 385 days over the next three years.

There is also a minimum CI of 270 days, which applies across all the scheme years.

What this all means in practice is that where a suckler cow calves on 1 April 2025, it must have calved on or after 11 February 2024 to be within the 415 day CI target.

Any cow that last calved on or before 10 February 2024, cannot have an eligible calving event in the first year of the scheme.

However, where a cow calves on 1 April 2025 and last calved on, for example, 1 March 2024, it is a CI of 396 days, so this calving event is eligible for the £100 payment.

It is also quite possible that this animal calves again before the end of the first year of the scheme. There is nothing in the legislation to exclude the same animal drawing down payment twice in the one year via two eligible calving events.

Something similar could also happen in reverse. A cow that calved on 10 February 2024, then on 15 March 2025 (CI 399 days) and 2 April 2026 (CI 383 days), does not actually have an eligible calving event occurring in the first year of the scheme.

When is the first payment to be made?

DAERA has yet to confirm when the first money will be paid out under the scheme, but it won’t be until after the first year is complete on 31 March 2026 and final figures across the 12-month period are known. As a result, it could be June 2026 before Year 1 payments are issued.

Are farmers who calve in January to March losing out?

Around 20% of suckler cows calve between January and March and with the new scheme not starting until 1 April 2025, it has created an illusion that these cows are somehow missing out in the first year.

However, the scheme year runs from 1 April to 31 March and any eligible calving events over that period attract the £100 payment. With this money not paid out until after the end of the scheme year, it is irrelevant whether a cow calved in early May 2025 or early February 2026.

Where there is an issue for farmers who calve some cows in early spring, relates to the change in eligibility conditions from 1 April each year.

For example, on 31 March 2026, a suckler cow that calves on that date must have a CI of a maximum of 415 days. A cow registered as calving the following day on 1 April 2026 must meet a 405-day target. The same principle applies for heifers, with target age dropping from 34 months to 32 months. It creates added complication for farmers at a busy time of year.

What does a quantitative limit actually mean?

There seems to be a certain level of paranoia within the Department that the new suckler scheme could lead to an increase in suckler numbers in NI. Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir has asked for an initial review to be done six months in, followed by a full review after two years.

A quantitative limit of 222,000 calving events has been set within the scheme, which is based on the number of calves produced from beef dams in NI in recent years. Where that limit is breached, all payments will be reduced.

However, given that not all heifers or cows will meet scheme eligibility requirements, DAERA is not budgeting for a 222,000 total, but instead, around 180,000 eligible calving events in the first year.

That might be a bit of an underestimate – where cows and heifers calve in March, it would be naïve to think there won’t be some level of holding back on calf registrations to 1 April 2025.

Are ROI tagged cows eligible for payment?

Cows and heifers that originated from the Republic of Ireland (ROI) or other countries outside of NI are not excluded from the new suckler payment. The key requirement of the scheme, is that a calving event takes place on a NI farm and that the calf is tagged, BVD tested and registered on NIFAIS.

The only animals excluded from the scheme are those with a status on NIFAIS such as unknown identity, date of birth query, valid dam failure or unknown BVD status.

What about payment for dead calves?

The £100 payment is available where the calving event meets eligibility requirements, but the calf is born dead or dies within 24 hours of birth. The calf must be tagged, BVD tested and registered on NIFAIS.

There is no requirement in the scheme that calves must live for a certain time period to draw down payments.

Could DAERA change the targets within the scheme?

One of the main benefits of being outside the EU is that we have the ability to design and amend schemes suited to our own needs. There is nothing to stop DAERA changing the targets within the suckler cow scheme at some point in the future. The obvious change that has been flagged on multiple occasions is the need to amend Year 3 and Year 4 CI targets, currently set at 395 and 385 days. A 385 day CI target is nonsensical and will be disruptive for those farmers who operate defined calving blocks as recommended by CAFRE.

The CI target should not drop below 400 days. Alternatively, there would be merit in looking at the possibility of farmers providing data to the new bovine genetics project as a condition for participation in the suckler scheme.