Farmers planning to construct new livestock housing under Tier 2 of the Farm Business Improvement Scheme (FBIS) should note that all concrete slats purchased under the scheme must meet CE certification.

Slats purchased without the CE mark or manufactured to this specification will be deemed ineligible. The same specification will be extended to other construction materials, such as ventilated sheeted tin. Currently, not all manufacturers of concrete slats used in livestock housing are CE accredited. However, their products are thoroughly tested and certified to several BS standards.

In order to meet the requirement of the FBIS, several of these manufacturers have told the Irish Farmers Journal that they have since applied for CE accreditation and are hopeful that this will be in place by the New Year.

In the Republic of Ireland, farmers applying for grant aid on construction of livestock housing are also required to purchase slats and tin carrying the CE mark.

A certificate of CE accreditation on these products is then submitted along with the claim form for funding, once the project has been completed. A similar approach may well be applied in NI.

What is the CE mark? Simply put, it is a mark placed on products that are traded within the European Economic Area (EEA).