It’s often the simplest things that we forget when it comes to safety on the yard. We invest in new handling facilities or new machinery to improve safety, without first improving the existing infrastructure on our yards.

Many of these retrofits are grant-aided under the TAMS III Farm Safety Scheme, which gives all eligible farmers a 60% grant on these investments. The TAMS III Farm Safety and Capital Investment Scheme (FSCIS) encompasses many different items; from calving cameras to bale slicers, mobile handling equipment to replacing slats. All of these carry a 60% grant rate, irrespective of the farmer’s age or qualification levels, and recent updates to TAMS reference costs have seen the grant amount available to farmers on some of these items increase.

1. Inspecting and replacing old slats

Slats have a lifespan of 20 years. That would mean that a shed built in 2005 would be due for a slat replacement. However, many sheds across the country were built 30 and 40 years ago, with the same slats still fitted in them and are at serious risk of failure.

If your slats are over 20 years old, they should be thoroughly inspected. Slats can appear fine on the upper surface and be severely degraded underneath. Even where tanks are empty, farmers should not enter to inspect slats, as pockets of hydrogen sulphide can exist in solid residue.

A trained professional with appropriate PPE should be employed. Your local slat manufacture should be able to carry out this inspection for you. For heavy-duty tractor slats the reference cost is €96.16/m2 and for ordinary cattle slats it is €82.01/ m2

Internal agitation points pose a risk to animal and farmer safety. No grant aid will be given for work completed inside a shed where there is an agitation point.

2. Agitation points

There are two main safety concerns with internal agitation points. Firstly, mixing a tank with an internal agitation point means the farmer is inside the shed when agitation begins, putting them at risk – while agitation points are a structurally weak part of a slat, and especially where they are made of steel, degradation can occur and animals or humans can fall into the tank from here.

Creating tank extensions to allow for external agitation points are priced at €6,403.32 under TAMS, while replacement of manhole covers are priced at €707.93 per cover. While this is not an altogether simple or appealing job for agri builders, it can be possibly incorporated into a larger job. It’s important to remember that no grant aid is given where there are internal agitation points for the replacement of slats, installation of calving cameras or any handling items.

It has also been raised by many farmers that there have been issues in the past with regard to installing base stations for heat/health detection collections. The same goes for sheds which do not have an internal agitation point themselves but share an air space with a shed that does.

3. Replacing swinging doors with sliding or roller ones

After storms earlier in the year, many farmers will know how difficult and dangerous working with swinging doors in rough conditions can be. Again, grant aid is available to retrofit sliding or roller doors on to these buildings, with a reference cost of €126.38 per m2 available to complete this work.

Safety cages can be retrofitted to existing roof lights, with cages compulsory where solar panels are to be fitted to shed roofs.

4. Retrofitting clear rooflights with steel mesh

Unprotected clear roof lights are a major hazard when it comes to working on agricultural roofs, as we highlighted in a previous video on this series. While all new TAMS projects require a safety cage to be fitted to new builds, retrofitting existing roof lights with a safety cage is also grant eligible. A single roof light carries a reference cost of €90.95, while double roof lights are priced at €114.79. Retrofitting triple roof-light with safety cages are priced at €133.15.

It’s also worth noting that where solar panels are to be fitted on to a shed roof and there are clear roof lights in the roof, a safety cage must be retrofitted in order to be eligible for the installation of panels.

Other items that will be of interest to farmers are rewiring existing sheds, installing LED work lights and fitting calving/lambing cameras within sheds. The key thing to remember when applying under the FSCIS is that your application has a minimum reference figure totalling €2,000 or more.

One of the most common reasons for applications being rejected is that they are below the minimum €2,000 spend. It is important to be mindful that this figure is exclusive of VAT, and all grant aid is paid out on the net price exclusive of VAT.