Tier 1 applications

To be successful with an application to Tier 1 of the Farm Business Improvement Scheme, an applicant must have included proposed project costs that were lower than DAERA’s reference price for eligible items.

With the cut-off set at over 74 points, in the end only 1,500 out of the original 3,500 applicants received a letter of offer. Assuming that an applicant met all the various criteria – a band one item (40 points), applied online (11 points), were under 40 years old (five points) and had a level two qualification (five points), they still had to go in at a price well below the estimate to be successful.

In total, up to 39 points were available for items that cost up to 20% below DAERA’s reference price.

30% of BVD claims fail

Since its launch at the beginning of February, 30% of claims for compensation for the removal of calves persistently infected (PI) with bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) have been unsuccessful.

In total, 44% of ineligible claims were due to calves not having a date of death recorded on APHIS within seven days of the animals declared date of death on claim forms.

A further 36% of ineligible claims were due to PI calves not being destroyed within the timeframes required by the scheme. PI calves should be destroyed within four weeks of a positive test result, or within six weeks if the owner decides to have a retest.