A combination of rising Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) payments focused on the most disadvantaged areas and new suckler payments in Budget 2019 will go some way towards helping lower-income farmers.

A €23m increase will bring the ANC budget back to the pre-recession level of €250m. “My inclination is to target areas that are most disadvantaged,” Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed told the Irish Farmers Journal.

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This was the approach adopted for last year’s €25m increase. If the same distribution applied again, next year’s maximum ANC payments would rise by around €600 over 34ha in mountain areas, by around €230 over 30ha in more severely handicapped areas and by €150 over 30ha in less severely handicapped areas. The new €20m Beef Environmental Efficiency Pilot scheme is understood to pay up to €40 per suckler cow for the recording of weight data.

“The objective is to get the most genomically efficient beef herd,” Minister Creed said, and improve sustainability credentials to ensure “the beef industry isn’t going to be asked to carry the can for anybody else”.

IFA president Joe Healy said the budget was some acknowledgment of farm income difficulties but remained inadequate, and called for increased funding under both schemes.

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