While the current BEAM scheme money is hitting bank accounts around the country, many farmers are still grappling with reducing stock numbers for the last BEAM scheme.

Speaking to farmers on the ground, many are confused about where they stand. The Department of Agriculture indicated earlier in the year that a calculator would be available to farmers but, so far, this has not been rolled out.

Some have been asked when money will be recouped if scheme targets aren’t met. The likelihood is that the money would be held back from payments due to you in the second half of 2021.

A reduction of less than 4% will result in a 100% penalty. A reduction of between 4% and 4.99% will incur a penalty on a sliding scale ranging from 20% to 80%.

Table 1 can be filled out for your farm to see where you stand on stocking rate for the remainder of the reference period.

Be careful to take account of newborn to one-year-olds changing to one- to two-year-olds when they go across 12 months. You can get the figure that you need to reduce by on your agfood portal. Take action as early as you can to avoid running into problems in May and June 2021. The “A” value in Table 1 should be 5% less than your reference period for nitrogen production.

Stock reduction examples

Farm one

Holding with 70 suckler cows and 70 calves to be sold at 12 months has a total nitrogen figure of 6,230kg for the year. 5% reduction required is 312kg.

  • Option one: reduce suckler cow number by four (260kg) and reduce calves by four (96kg) to give a total reduction of 356kg over a 12-month period.
  • Option two: reduce cow numbers by five for full 12 months to give a reduction of 325kg.
  • Option three: if no stock reductions took place until 1 January that would mean this farmer would have to reduce by eight cows and eight calves for the six months between 1 January and 30 June 2021 or else reduce cows numbers by 10 during the first six months of 2021.

    • Farm two

    Holding with 70 one- to two-year-old cattle has a total nitrogen figure of 3,990kg for the year; the 5% reduction required equates to 200kg.

  • Option one: reduce one- to two-year-old cattle numbers by four to give a total reduction of 228kg for the full 12 months.
  • Option two: if no stock reductions took place until 1 January that would mean a reduction of eight one- to two-year-olds during the period from 1 January to 30 June 2021.

    • Farm three

    Holding with 14 suckler cows and 12 calves to be sold at 12 months has a total nitrogen figure of 1,198 for the year; the 5% reduction required equates to 60kg.

  • Option one: reduce suckler cow numbers by one (65kg).
  • Option two: if no stock reductions took place until 1 January, this would mean a reduction of two cows between 1 January and 30 June 2021.