While the 2021 Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) closed in January for applicants in 2021, it’s important to remember the scheme conditions to maximise the 2021 payment.
The scheme is an important support to the suckler herd and an important part of farm income on many suckler farms.
The average payment per farm in 2020 was €1,700. There were 17,592 applications to the 2021 rollover scheme. Only people who fulfilled the conditions of the 2020 scheme were eligible to apply for the 2021 scheme.
There are a number of requirements for the scheme:
Some €40m in funding has been allocated to the Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme – Sucklers (BEEP-S) scheme in 2021. It has also come to be an important support to suckler farms and it’s a scheme that the majority of farmers are very happy with.
Its core principle is weighing cows and calves to provide some important information for management decisions and also to feed much more weighing data into the ICBF database to strengthen the reliability of our breeding indices.
To fulfil the requirements of the scheme, applicants must complete a number of mandatory and optional actions. Actions are outlined in Table 1.
The cow and calf must be weighed on the same day before weaning and weights uploaded to the ICBF database by 1 November 2021.
Scales must be registered with ICBF before weighing takes place. This action needs to be fully completed before any payment is made.
Optional action one is feeding meal or vaccinating weanlings. If meal feeding is chosen, meal must be fed to weanlings four weeks in advance of weaning and two weeks after weaning.
Meal dockets need to be kept for inspection purposes.
If vaccinating for pneumonia is chosen, there are two protocols which you can follow. You are best to consult your vet as to the best option for your farm.
The final optional action is faecal sampling cows for fluke detection. This must be completed by 1 October 2021.
Applications must be completed via the agfood.ie portal and the closing date for applications is 26 April.
This is a new scheme in 2021, with €5m in funding allocated in its first year. The scheme was introduced to encourage farmers to weigh dairy-beef calves during their lifetime to monitor performance. The scheme is open to male dairy x dairy calves and male and female dairy x beef calves.
Applicants must weigh a minimum of five dairy x calves to be eligible for payment. The maximum number of calves per applicant is 20. The payment rate is €20/head so the maximum payment in 2021 is €400.
Ten days
Calves must be in the applicant’s herd 10 days before weighing and they must be a minimum of 12 weeks of age before they can be weighed.
Only calves born in 2021 are eligible for payment. Weights must be loaded on to the ICBF database within seven days of weighing and the scales must be registered with ICBF.
Applications need to be submitted prior by 26 April and should be completed via the agfood.ie portal.
Once all scheme requirements have been met, payment is issued in December.