A cut to compensation payments for TB reactor cattle is being considered by DAERA, the Irish Farmers Journal has learned.

The department had previously proposed dropping compensation rates to 75% of each animal’s market value and capping payments at £5,000 per animal.

New TB strategy

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However, in March 2022, the proposals were not included in a new TB strategy by the then Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots, although it was to be reviewed “two years after implementation of the full strategy”.

Despite many aspects of the new TB strategy still not being rolled out, including badger culls in TB hotspot areas, budgetary pressures within DAERA appear to have put compensation cuts back on the agenda.

“All areas of the TB Eradication Programme are being reviewed to ensure that the approach taken to eradication and compensation is affordable within the budgets allocated by the Secretary of State and delivers value for money for the public purse,” a DAERA spokesperson said.

The cost of TB has escalated in NI and now stands at over £50m annually. Record high TB rates are a major factor, with the latest figures showing 5,602 reactor cattle left NI farms in first four months of 2023, up 21% on the same period last year.

Other factors include higher market values for cattle and increased costs for TB testing, particularly with a new contract for private vets now in place.

The DAERA spokesperson also pointed to the “extremely difficult budgetary position” that the department is now in, as £3.5m was taken off its overall resource budget for the 2023/24 financial year.

“The department is currently reviewing again all its financial pressures and opportunities for savings as part of an internal monitoring exercise to ensure that every possible step is being taken to drive efficiencies and to identify further decisions that may be needed to ensure that it lives within the budgets allocated to it,” the spokesperson said.

Local shows

A lack of funding has also meant that DAERA is not taking up a recommended new funding model for local agricultural shows in NI.

A review commissioned by DAERA in May 2022 and conducted by Aled Rhys Jones from the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society recommended that the department set up a two-tier funding model for local shows in NI.

It would have annual cost of up to £190,000 if £5,000 was made available for each event to cover running costs and a further £100,000 was put up for an “innovation fund”.

“Due to the current, very challenging financial environment, the department is not in a position to take forward the recommendations at this time,” the DAERA spokesperson said.

“For the 2023 show season it will provide support via its attendance and exhibiting at a number of the local shows,” they added.