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Farmers taking part in the Beef Environmental Efficiency Pilot scheme (BEEP) can receive payment on all beef-bred calves born in the herd between 1 July 2018 and 30 June 2019.
To qualify as a beef-bred animal, both the bull and the cow must be beef breeds.
To receive payment, farmers are required to weigh an unweaned calf and its dam and submit the weights to ICBF between 8 March and 1 November 2019.
Where a cow has twin calves, both calves will qualify for a payment.
To weigh calves, farmers can use a scales from a rental scheme or their own scales.
Applications to the scheme will open next week and farmers can apply between 4 February and 22 February 2019.
The scheme is open to all suckler farmers, even those outside the BDGP scheme.
A budget of €20m is available for 2019, which allows for a payment of €40/calf across 500,000 calves. In the event the scheme is oversubscribed, there may be linear cuts to the payment rate.
The Department of Agriculture has indicated that payments to those farmers who apply will be issued in December 2019, provided all weights have been submitted in time.
The scheme will run for one year on a pilot basis.
Speaking at the launch on Wednesday, Minister for Agriculture Minister Creed stressed the importance of schemes such as BEEP, which are designed to increase the economic and environmental efficiency of the suckler herd.
His comments were echoed by ICBF’s Sean Coughlan, who said it was a win-win for farmers as there were few actions to lower emissions that did not cost farmers anything to implement.
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