Details of the €2.75m Fodder Production Incentive announced last Friday have been unveiled.

The aim is to double the amount of catch crop on stubble ground to close to 50,000ha, the Minister of State Andrew Doyle said.

Farmers had been anxious for details ahead of promised rain this weekend.

The Department of Agriculture published the application form for the scheme and frequently asked questions on its website on Wednesday evening.

The Fodder Production Incentive commits €2.75m to tillage farmers for the planting of grass or catch crops for forage or fodder, €100/ha for grass crops, €155/ha for forage crops.

The plot must have been used for a tillage crop in 2018 and the catch crop must be ploughed up next year.

ICMSA president Pat McCormack has called for the scheme to be extended to grassland farmers.

Merchants are reporting a decent supply of stocks of suitable catch crop seed and Teagasc estimates the cost of growing a fodder crop in stubble is €35/bale.

For catch crops, the minimum growing period has been reduced to eight weeks and it is understood that ryegrass is accepted as a catch crop. Farmers are still waiting for details of flexibilities in GLAS.

The Department confirmed that farmers with traditional hay meadow under GLAS can make a second cut from these parcels.