Revealed: the proposals in the €13/ewe National Sheep Welfare Scheme

The popular National Sheep Welfare Scheme will continue with the same actions as in 2024, but in a slightly different format and with an extra action added.

This means shearing, vaccination for clostridial diseases, plunge dipping to control external parasites and body condition scoring (BCS) of ewes all return, while footbathing is proposed as the fifth action.

The Irish Farmers Journal understands the proposed format of the scheme will include farmers selecting two actions from a list including shearing, clostridial disease vaccination and BCS.

Completion of these two actions is worth €4 each per head while payment of the extra €5 per ewe is dependent on farmers carrying out either plunge dipping or footbathing.

The proposed actions were discussed at a meeting between Department of Agriculture officials and farm organisations in Dublin on Wednesday.

IFA sheep committee chair Adrian Gallagher welcomed the proposed actions describing them as a “practical extension of the scheme which ran in 2024 with the addition of foot bathing of sheep to the shearing, BCS, vaccination and plunge dipping options provided last year”.

Gallagher said: “It is important farmers have flexibility in the selection process and that all measures are voluntary to provide maximum flexibility to farmers who enter the scheme. He highlighted that it is important that flexibility is also afforded to farmers to include hoggets retained for breeding in the scheme reference number.

“We see clearly the level of decline in the national flock, a trend that is continuing this year and it is vital this scheme and the establishment of the reference numbers for the scheme maximise participation and the numbers of sheep farmers will be paid on,” he added.

“With the demand for sheepmeat currently, there is a real danger that hoggets ordinarily kept for breeding could be sold for meat. This would have very negative long-term implications for the sector but by including these replacement hoggets it can provide an incentive and support for farmers to retain their flock’s production levels.”

The IFA is calling for farmers to be given a reference number in a similar manner to that in 2024 and to be awarded the option to select the higher number of the 2024 census or the average of the previous three years.