Over the coming weeks we will look at each of the different measures in the Green Low Carbon Scheme (GLAS). We will talk to farmers and advisers and address issues that emerge in the scheme that can potentially give up to 50,000 farmers’ incomes a boost over the next five years.
How do you apply?
You must use an approved agricultural planner to prepare the GLAS application. There are around 500 trained and registered by the Department of Agriculture. Teagasc is already introducing its clients to the Farm Relief Services which has been contracted to do its GLAS plans. Private consultants are contacting their own clients.
With a tight time frame and 30,000 farmers clambering to get in before the 15 May deadline, the biggest challenge could be getting a planner.
Action – contact your adviser or consultant to make an appointment.
After you apply, what else do you have to do?
Each farmer has to have a nutrient management plan before the end of the first full calendar year in the scheme and do training in environmental practices and standards. You also have to keep a record of how you delivered the actions you chose when going into GLAS.
If you get into GLAS, when will you get paid this year?
The Minister for Agriculture has said successful farmers can expect payment for the last three months of the year, with initial payments going out before the end of the year. The reason for this delay is that GLAS plans have to be processed first.
The overall structure of GLAS does not look simple. The scheme is divided into three tiers. A farmer is ranked as Tier 1, 2 or 3, depending on the nature of the farm and their current farming enterprises. The Tier into which a farmer falls will determine what measures he/she must take up in the scheme. The tiers determine priority ranking for admission, with Tier 1 getting top priority and Tier 3 lowest. However, the tiers only become a restricting factor if the scheme is oversubscribed, which is unlikely to happen this year.
Under these tiers, there is a range of actions that farmers can choose, a bit like the previous AEOS scheme. They are listed in Table 1 along with the payments rates and minimum and maximum paid out under any specific measure. It also gives the date that farmers must sign up to complete the action.
Planners are required to advise farmers to choose actions most suitable for their farms and which deliver the greatest environmental dividend. Farmers will aim to select the most appropriate to maximise their payment up to €5,000 and leave money in their pockets. However, many will also have to look at the affect measures such as low input permanent pasture or traditional hay meadows will have on production.
The tiers
Tier 1
Tier 1 farms include farmers with a priority environmental asset. These are:
Farmland habitat (private natura sites).Farmland birds (breeding waders, chough, corncrake, geese/swans, grey partridge, hen harrier, twite).Commonages (50% target participation in GLAS commonage plan).High-status water area.Rare breeds.If any of these priority assets are present on a farm, the farmer must choose the GLAS actions that relate to them when applying to the scheme.
In addition, a beef, sheep or dairy farmer, with a whole farm stocking rate exceeding 140kg livestock manure nitrogen per hectare produced on the holding, or with more than 30ha of arable crops, can also be considered for Tier 1 if they adopt one of the following four actions:
Minimum tillage.Catch crops establishment from a sown crop.Low-emission slurry spreading.Wild bird cover (livestock farm > 140kg N/ha only)Registered organic farmers will qualify for priority access under Tier 1 by selecting actions appropriate to the farm. However, if any of the priority environmental assets listed earlier apply, they must be chosen first. There cannot be double payment on hectares under GLAS and organics.
It is not guaranteed that all eligible applicants in Tier 1 will get into the scheme and a scoring matrix will apply if necessary, with assets on farm always trumping actions farmers can carry out.
Tier 2
These will be farms that do not have priority environmental assets but contain a vulnerable water area. In this case, the appropriate actions relevant to vulnerable water areas must be selected. In the absence of a vulnerable water area, a farmer with less than 140kg N/ha or less than 30ha of tillage can qualify for Tier 2 access, by choosing one of the following actions:
Minimum tillage.Catch crops establishment from a sown crop.Low-emission slurry spreading.Wild Bird Cover It is not guaranteed that all eligible applicants in Tier 2 will get into the scheme and a scoring matrix will apply if necessary.
Tier 3
These are farmers who do not fulfil any of the criteria for Tiers 1 or 2, but who commit to a series of general environmental actions. This Tier is lowest in priority ranking.
The table shows the range of general actions that can be chosen on their own in a Tier 3 application.
These action can also be selected as additional actions as part of a Tier 1 or 2 application.
Planner focus: Brian Dolan
Brian Dolan, Creeslough, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, was the first planner to register farmers on the online GLAS application system this week. The plans, when completed, can be cross-checked for issues but cannot be officially submitted for processing until full EU approval of the Rural Development Plan, which is expected in mid March.
The first farmers Brian submitted were in commonage and, at €120/ha, had enough land to qualify for the €5,000 maximum under the measure. Some were looking at GLAS+, where their farms have been identified as having endangered bird habitats. Brian welcomed the extra time to complete the commonage framework plan, saying it would otherwise have been impossible to get through the workload which includes Basic Payment Scheme, National Reserve and Young Farmers Scheme application before the 15 May deadline. The requirement for 50% of commonage farmers to sign up to a framework plan has been dropped. It is referred to now by the Department as a target rather than an eligibility issue.
The biggest issue Brian and other planners have found is where a farmer cannot split a parcel to carry out different measures under GLAS on his farm.
He said: “It will restrict payment to farmers, especially if their entire farm is one parcel. I highlighted this with the Department weeks ago but they don’t want to change it,” Brian said. In some cases he is advising farmers to get each field separately digitised in 2015 and look to enter the scheme in 2016. “That way they can maximise the payment under the scheme over the five years.”
GLAS Query: I’m currently in AEOS and have two years left. Can I switch into GLAS this year?
Only farmers currently in AEOS with commonage or hen harrier environmental priorities on their farms can switch from their existing contracts into GLAS this year.
Over the coming weeks we will look at each of the different measures in the Green Low Carbon Scheme (GLAS). We will talk to farmers and advisers and address issues that emerge in the scheme that can potentially give up to 50,000 farmers’ incomes a boost over the next five years.
How do you apply?
You must use an approved agricultural planner to prepare the GLAS application. There are around 500 trained and registered by the Department of Agriculture. Teagasc is already introducing its clients to the Farm Relief Services which has been contracted to do its GLAS plans. Private consultants are contacting their own clients.
With a tight time frame and 30,000 farmers clambering to get in before the 15 May deadline, the biggest challenge could be getting a planner.
Action – contact your adviser or consultant to make an appointment.
After you apply, what else do you have to do?
Each farmer has to have a nutrient management plan before the end of the first full calendar year in the scheme and do training in environmental practices and standards. You also have to keep a record of how you delivered the actions you chose when going into GLAS.
If you get into GLAS, when will you get paid this year?
The Minister for Agriculture has said successful farmers can expect payment for the last three months of the year, with initial payments going out before the end of the year. The reason for this delay is that GLAS plans have to be processed first.
The overall structure of GLAS does not look simple. The scheme is divided into three tiers. A farmer is ranked as Tier 1, 2 or 3, depending on the nature of the farm and their current farming enterprises. The Tier into which a farmer falls will determine what measures he/she must take up in the scheme. The tiers determine priority ranking for admission, with Tier 1 getting top priority and Tier 3 lowest. However, the tiers only become a restricting factor if the scheme is oversubscribed, which is unlikely to happen this year.
Under these tiers, there is a range of actions that farmers can choose, a bit like the previous AEOS scheme. They are listed in Table 1 along with the payments rates and minimum and maximum paid out under any specific measure. It also gives the date that farmers must sign up to complete the action.
Planners are required to advise farmers to choose actions most suitable for their farms and which deliver the greatest environmental dividend. Farmers will aim to select the most appropriate to maximise their payment up to €5,000 and leave money in their pockets. However, many will also have to look at the affect measures such as low input permanent pasture or traditional hay meadows will have on production.
The tiers
Tier 1
Tier 1 farms include farmers with a priority environmental asset. These are:
Farmland habitat (private natura sites).Farmland birds (breeding waders, chough, corncrake, geese/swans, grey partridge, hen harrier, twite).Commonages (50% target participation in GLAS commonage plan).High-status water area.Rare breeds.If any of these priority assets are present on a farm, the farmer must choose the GLAS actions that relate to them when applying to the scheme.
In addition, a beef, sheep or dairy farmer, with a whole farm stocking rate exceeding 140kg livestock manure nitrogen per hectare produced on the holding, or with more than 30ha of arable crops, can also be considered for Tier 1 if they adopt one of the following four actions:
Minimum tillage.Catch crops establishment from a sown crop.Low-emission slurry spreading.Wild bird cover (livestock farm > 140kg N/ha only)Registered organic farmers will qualify for priority access under Tier 1 by selecting actions appropriate to the farm. However, if any of the priority environmental assets listed earlier apply, they must be chosen first. There cannot be double payment on hectares under GLAS and organics.
It is not guaranteed that all eligible applicants in Tier 1 will get into the scheme and a scoring matrix will apply if necessary, with assets on farm always trumping actions farmers can carry out.
Tier 2
These will be farms that do not have priority environmental assets but contain a vulnerable water area. In this case, the appropriate actions relevant to vulnerable water areas must be selected. In the absence of a vulnerable water area, a farmer with less than 140kg N/ha or less than 30ha of tillage can qualify for Tier 2 access, by choosing one of the following actions:
Minimum tillage.Catch crops establishment from a sown crop.Low-emission slurry spreading.Wild Bird Cover It is not guaranteed that all eligible applicants in Tier 2 will get into the scheme and a scoring matrix will apply if necessary.
Tier 3
These are farmers who do not fulfil any of the criteria for Tiers 1 or 2, but who commit to a series of general environmental actions. This Tier is lowest in priority ranking.
The table shows the range of general actions that can be chosen on their own in a Tier 3 application.
These action can also be selected as additional actions as part of a Tier 1 or 2 application.
Planner focus: Brian Dolan
Brian Dolan, Creeslough, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, was the first planner to register farmers on the online GLAS application system this week. The plans, when completed, can be cross-checked for issues but cannot be officially submitted for processing until full EU approval of the Rural Development Plan, which is expected in mid March.
The first farmers Brian submitted were in commonage and, at €120/ha, had enough land to qualify for the €5,000 maximum under the measure. Some were looking at GLAS+, where their farms have been identified as having endangered bird habitats. Brian welcomed the extra time to complete the commonage framework plan, saying it would otherwise have been impossible to get through the workload which includes Basic Payment Scheme, National Reserve and Young Farmers Scheme application before the 15 May deadline. The requirement for 50% of commonage farmers to sign up to a framework plan has been dropped. It is referred to now by the Department as a target rather than an eligibility issue.
The biggest issue Brian and other planners have found is where a farmer cannot split a parcel to carry out different measures under GLAS on his farm.
He said: “It will restrict payment to farmers, especially if their entire farm is one parcel. I highlighted this with the Department weeks ago but they don’t want to change it,” Brian said. In some cases he is advising farmers to get each field separately digitised in 2015 and look to enter the scheme in 2016. “That way they can maximise the payment under the scheme over the five years.”
GLAS Query: I’m currently in AEOS and have two years left. Can I switch into GLAS this year?
Only farmers currently in AEOS with commonage or hen harrier environmental priorities on their farms can switch from their existing contracts into GLAS this year.
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