The Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) will replace the Sheep Welfare Scheme and has been allocated funds of €100m or €20m per annum.

Disappointingly for producers, this figure implies that there will be no change to the current payment rate of €10/ewe.

The €20m allocation per annum is about €2m higher than is being currently drawn down by farmers and this accounts for the fact that a new reference year of 2017 is likely to bring the funding requirement to €20m per annum.

The CAP consultation document released earlier this year suggests that the measures farmers will have to complete to receive payment under the SIS will closely mirror the current menu of measures, with the possible addition of farmers being require?d to purchase genotyped rams.