Farmers in NI are willing to cover the cost of a badger cull to help tackle bovine TB, the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) has said.

In a document submitted to DAERA, the UFU states that unused funds which were collected from dairy and beef farmers in 2023 and 2024 “are still available”.

The levy was charged at 0.02ppl of milk and £1/head on slaughtered beef cattle and was collected to fund a cull of badgers in TB hotspot areas.

That plan was stopped due to a legal challenge over DAERA’s handling of a public consultation, but a new consultation on wildlife intervention opened in July 2026.

“The industry has previously been, and still is, committed to contributing to effective, lethal wildlife intervention to reduce TB levels,” the UFU states in its consultation response.

However, the union is clear in its response to DAERA that it “strongly opposes” wildlife intervention that is based around vaccinating badgers.

This includes a vaccination only policy, where no badgers are culled, as well as a Test, Vaccinate or Remove (TVR) approach, where badgers are tested for TB with positive cases culled and negative cases vaccinated.