With just over two weeks to the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) deadline on Monday 16 May, more than 41,000 applications have been received, 36,104 of which were submitted online. The Department of Agriculture continues to push farmers to make their applications online to speed up processing and payments. Online applications submitted by advisers make up the majority at this stage. Advisers report the online system to be working well. The fine weather has seen farmers put off appointments as they work to catch up on spring work. The BPS was previously known as the Single Farm Payment.