There has been a positive response to calls from the Department of Agriculture for farmers participating in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) to submit their Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) declaration. The Irish Farmers Journal understand that upwards of 800 declarations were submitted, leaving just a couple of hundred outstanding cases.
The deadline for submitting a declaration via MyAgFood.ie or AgFood.ie by either farmers themselves or by their approved ACRES adviser was 31 October 2025.
Any farmers with outstanding declarations are urged to submit their annual declaration immediately.
Failing to submit the LESS return will result in a delay to the 2025 ACRES advance payment, and may also result in the rejection of the LESS action from their ACRES contract. Farmers must remain under a stocking rate of 100kg organic nitrogen per hectare to avail of this action in ACRES.
Rare breeds
Attention is turning to the deadline of 15 November 2025 for farmers participating in the rare breeds action to submit their 2024 declaration of stock numbers. This action concerns about 2,500 participants so is not insignificant.
The declaration may be completed by a participant or their adviser and must be submitted online through the MyAgfood.ie facility. Payment for the conservation of rare breeds action is made in arrears based on the monthly average livestock units of owned registered animals over the previous recording year.
Payment for the 2024 claim will form part of the 2025 balancing payment, which is due to issue in the second quarter of 2026.
Submission of a claim will require proof of membership of the relevant breed society and identification documents and certificates issued by the relevant breed society for each registered animal. Participants must have at least 0.10 livestock unit eligible for payment each year.
The livestock unit values for different categories of stock are outlined as follows;
Bovines under one year old are 0.4LUBovines aged from one to two years are 0.7LUMale bovines aged two years and over are 1LUSuckler cows and female bovines aged two years and over are 0.8LUEquines over six months are 0.8LUSheep/goats over six months of age are 0.1LUThe breeds eligible under the Conservation of Rare Breeds action in ACRES include the cattle breeds of Kerry, Dexter, Irish Maol (Irish Moiled) and Droimeann, the horse breeds Connemara Pony, Irish Draught and Kerry Bog Pony and the Galway Sheep breed and Old Irish Goat.
A user’s guide for this task is available on the ACRES web page.
There has been a positive response to calls from the Department of Agriculture for farmers participating in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) to submit their Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) declaration. The Irish Farmers Journal understand that upwards of 800 declarations were submitted, leaving just a couple of hundred outstanding cases.
The deadline for submitting a declaration via MyAgFood.ie or AgFood.ie by either farmers themselves or by their approved ACRES adviser was 31 October 2025.
Any farmers with outstanding declarations are urged to submit their annual declaration immediately.
Failing to submit the LESS return will result in a delay to the 2025 ACRES advance payment, and may also result in the rejection of the LESS action from their ACRES contract. Farmers must remain under a stocking rate of 100kg organic nitrogen per hectare to avail of this action in ACRES.
Rare breeds
Attention is turning to the deadline of 15 November 2025 for farmers participating in the rare breeds action to submit their 2024 declaration of stock numbers. This action concerns about 2,500 participants so is not insignificant.
The declaration may be completed by a participant or their adviser and must be submitted online through the MyAgfood.ie facility. Payment for the conservation of rare breeds action is made in arrears based on the monthly average livestock units of owned registered animals over the previous recording year.
Payment for the 2024 claim will form part of the 2025 balancing payment, which is due to issue in the second quarter of 2026.
Submission of a claim will require proof of membership of the relevant breed society and identification documents and certificates issued by the relevant breed society for each registered animal. Participants must have at least 0.10 livestock unit eligible for payment each year.
The livestock unit values for different categories of stock are outlined as follows;
Bovines under one year old are 0.4LUBovines aged from one to two years are 0.7LUMale bovines aged two years and over are 1LUSuckler cows and female bovines aged two years and over are 0.8LUEquines over six months are 0.8LUSheep/goats over six months of age are 0.1LUThe breeds eligible under the Conservation of Rare Breeds action in ACRES include the cattle breeds of Kerry, Dexter, Irish Maol (Irish Moiled) and Droimeann, the horse breeds Connemara Pony, Irish Draught and Kerry Bog Pony and the Galway Sheep breed and Old Irish Goat.
A user’s guide for this task is available on the ACRES web page.
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