TAMS has, by and large, been a hugely successful scheme. While there have been some grievances aired by farmers and here in the Irish Farmers Journal buildings pages regarding the speed by which applications are processed as well as some poor reference costs in the past, it has provided millions in grant aid to farmers to improve their on-farm facilities.

TAMS isn’t simply a fund for large slatted units or slurry storage solutions; the minimum spend is €2,000 which can suit many farms better than a large outlay.

When 60% grant aid is taken in to consideration, while an initial outlay may be larger than a farmer would be willing to spend themselves, much of this money will be recouped in grant aid and possibly a VAT reclaim for qualifying items.

So, what work can be completed under various different budgets?

An increase in reference costs in September 2025 has brought many eligible investments more in line with actual costings, but a spend can still often be dictated by specification and bespoke work.

Below are some possible options for farmers on various budgets.

It is important to remember that items/ investments must be paid for in full with a receipt showing proof of payment before any payment of grant aid is allowed, so cashflow or a bridging loan will have to be used by many.

One of the more popular items that sheep farmers utilise TAMS aid for is sheep fencing, with sheep mesh and one strand of either electric or bared sitting above this.

Sheep mesh with one strand of wire is costed at €8.10/linear metre, while mountain sheep mesh with one strand of wire is costed at €10.57/linear metre; there is no difference in the standards of fence, with the higher cost attributed to difficulty in accessing mountain land with machinery.

With the above costs, a farmer looking to erect a lowland fence could complete 617m of sheep fencing, while those eligible for mountain fencing could complete up to 473m.

Other popular items that a sheep farmer could opt for in lieu of fencing are sheep weighing scales at €909.58/unit, a sheep rollover crate at €1,126.38/unit or a batch footbath at €842.38/unit.

Mobile penning can also be grant aided at €33.73/linear metre. If a farmer was to combine the three handling items (scales, footbath, roll over crate) they would also be able to purchase 62 metres of mobile penning, all for under €5,000, and since these items fall under the Farm Safety Capital Investment Scheme, 100% of eligible applications should be accepted and all farmers are eligible for a 60% grant rate.

Sticking with the FSCIS, a popular investment amongst farmers is the replacement of cattle slats.

Cattle slat replacement for ordinary duty slats is costed at €82.01/m2. A three bay double-slatted shed requiring replacement of 12ft 6in slats will have approximately 109.7m2 of an area, leaving a spend of just shy of €9k at €8,998.79.

As always, grant aid will not be given for any works in a shed with internal agitation points.

The creation of external agitation points holds a reference cost of €6,403.32/agitation point.

If the above shed has one point either side, then we would see a total of €12,806.94 being spent before we are eligible for grant aid for replacement of slats.

Once the external agitation points are in place, then we can continue with our application to replace the slats.

While our initial outlay has gone above our €15,000 mark, because both investments are under the FSCIS, both are eligible for grant aid to the tune of 60%. Our initial outlay of €21,805.73 (plus VAT) should see €13,083.43 back in our pocket in grant aid, leaving a total long-term outlay of €8,722.29 to the farmer.

A hugely labour-saving option for farmers using AI in their suckler herd is herd health and heat detection collars/tags/boluses.

These carry a reference cost of €134.70 per collar/tag/bolus, while base stations have a costing of €2,833/unit. A 40-cow suckler herd with 10 replacement heifers (50 collars/tags/boluses) will see the monitoring equipment worn by the cattle at €6,735 and including the base station as listed above, a farmer will be spending €9,568.

These items are not listed under the FSCIS, so only qualifying young trained farmers or women farmers will qualify for the 60% grant aid; all others will receive 40%.

We have upped the budget here to reflect what dairy farmers will need, and while many will be looking to staple the cheque book to the floor this year amid poor milk prices, there will still be some that want/need to make investments.

The collars for herd health and heat detection are an obvious choice for a diary farmer to invest in.

While we may have €30,000 to spend, we won’t be using it all on collars; if we are depending on grant aid a limit of 120 collars/ farm is imposed.

One hundred and twenty collars and a base station will set the farmer back €18,997 pre grant aid.

I’ve seen many farmers invest in computerised calf feeders in recent years.

A four-station calf feeder is costed at €17,254 (subtract €2,608.80 for every base station below this).

The one key thing to be mindful with computerised calf feeders is surrounding the VAT debacle, with these now seen to be a mobile item and not eligible for a VAT reclaim.

The same can be said for robotic slurry scrapers, which to fell foul of recent changes to the interpretation of fixed and mobile items by revenue.

A new robotic scraper holds a reference cost of €20,920; reference costs are VAT exclusive so flat rate farmers will be stung with the VAT bill, the price of which they can not receive grant aid on.

On the slurry/soiled water storage side, we aren’t going to build a huge tank for sub €30k, but it may take pressure off a farmer in early spring.

A four bay (4.8m bays) tank with agitation points at either end to give a total length of 22.2m, overlayed with a 16ft 6in slat (internal width of tank 4.72m) will give us a tank measuring 251.98m2, with a usable capacity of 230.92m2 (200mm of freeboard) at a reference cost of €24,856.

Tanks were one of the items that saw a poor increase in reference costs in the shake up in September, with typical tank costings only rising by 3-5%.

Recent price increases of ready-mix concrete of €10-20/m2 will guarantee the spend increasing above our €30k figure, while we will also have to go back after wards and overlay with slats or place a protective fence around the tank.

Thankfully, all farmers are eligible for the 60% grant rate on slurry storage which helps takes the sting out of the poor reference cost somewhat, while all eligible applications again should see approval being issued.

Ranking and selection: what does it mean?

I mentioned throughout the article that any eligible investments in anything covered by the FSCIS should receive the green light with regard an application going in to the Department, while the Minister is also prioritising any spending in TAMS to go towards slurry and manure storage investments, with increased storage on farms seen as an easy win with regard to protecting water quality. After this, things become a little more precarious due to the ranking and selection that has come in to place in recent tranches.

Investments covered by the Solar Capital Investment Scheme, the Low Emissions Slurry Spreading and the Dairy Equipment Scheme have all seen the volume of applications getting approval slashed to 10%, with the first two seen as swallowing up much of the money that has already been paid out in TAMS III.

My belief is that a softer approach could be taken, whereby a limit was placed on the number of new tankers fitted with trailing shoes but the gates being left open to allow for farmers wishing to retrofit their own tanker with a trailing shoe. The scheme was flawed in my opinion, with it often being cheaper for a farmer to trade in their older tanker and purchase a new one fitted with a trailing shoe than it was for them to retrofit one with TAMS aid on their old tanker. It is also a hammer blow to farmers who were seeking to install automatic milking systems (AMS) under the DES. After severe limitations put on eligible items within the DES, one of the more useful items still qualifying was for AMS, with the grant aid again being a major driver in farmers investing in this technology.