The deadlines for submission of carbon navigators for BDGP I and II applicants were 31 October and 1 November respectively.

The Department of Agriculture has confirmed that a total of 870 herds – 720 in BDGP I and 150 in BDGP II – have been disqualified from the scheme for not having completed a carbon navigator, as required.

The terms and conditions of the scheme also state that disqualified farmers will be subject to “clawback of all payments for previous years”.

Clarification has been provided by the Department; “Any payments made to farmers under BDGP I who did not complete a carbon navigator will be subject to recovery.

In this instance, payments were only made in respect of year one of the scheme, ie 2015. No payments have yet been made under BDGP II.”

Additionally, there are 929 participants in BDGP I who have not completed their carbon navigator update.

A Department spokesperson stated: “A penalty of 20% will be applied to payments where the update has not been submitted at the time of payment.”

10,000 BDGP samples

In figures released to the Irish Farmers Journal, the Department stated: “Approximately 3% of genomic samples are yet to be submitted in respect of the 2017 scheme year for BDGP I and II. However, the Department continues to receive samples on an ongoing basis.”

With a total of 326,629 cattle due to be genomically tested in 2017 under the scheme, this means that just under 10,000 cattle are yet to have samples returned.

Over 20,000 samples have been returned in the last four weeks. However, there is still a considerable amount of samples yet to be returned as the deadline of 7 December closes in.

Genomic tissue-sampling accounts for 10% of the total BDGP payment, while the genotyping itself accounts for 15%. Therefore, it should be a priority on farms to get these samples taken to ensure full payment.

A number of farmers have only received their BDGP tags in the last week.

These samples must be taken as soon as possible and returned.