Mayo ANC meeting

At a south Mayo regional meeting on ANCs last week in Kilmaine, county chair Martin Gilvarry said all of Mayo must be protected as a more severely handicapped area in the ongoing ANC review. He said that 11,500 farmers benefit from ANC payments in the county worth up to €23.5m. This represents 18% of farm income in the county and is a vital support. More county ANC meetings are planned. Check www.ifa.ie for details.

Smart Farming

Smart Farming, the IFA-led cost savings programme, will work with more than 1,000 farmers across 50 discussion groups, purchasing groups and IFA branches in 2017. Advisers will carry out case studies on farms nationwide and the actions, results and learnings from these will help the farmers involved to make savings of €5,000 on average and will be communicated through discussion groups and www.smartfarming.ie.

BDGP

IFA livestock chair Angus Woods has encouraged all suckler farmers not currently in the BDGP to apply for the reopened scheme, which he emphasised is open to new entrants to suckler farming. He said it is important that suckler farmers apply as soon as possible and before the closing date to ensure they can get paid before year end. Payments equate to €95 per cow on the first 10 cows and €80 per cow on the remainder.

Renewables

James Murphy, renewables project team chair, has called on Minister Denis Naughten to urgently progress plans to introduce supports for farm-scale and community renewable projects. He said climate gases from agriculture have dropped by 5.5% since 1990 and to build on this, the minister must immediately put in place the National Energy Forum to develop a coherent policy framework, with meaningful tariff supports.