Over the last few weeks, various issues have been raised about the Beef Carbon Reduction (BCR) scheme in NI and taking everything together, it would suggest there is little appetite for it to continue beyond its projected finish date at the end of 2027.

The four-year scheme, along with a four-year suckler payment, were put in place by former DAERA minister Edwin Poots.

At the time, and in response to new Climate Change legislation passed in 2022, he was keen to improve the productivity of the NI beef industry.

By encouraging farmers to kill cattle at younger ages, the plan was that the beef scheme would contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from NI farming. The age limit started out at 30 months, is currently 27 months and moves to a maximum of 26 months next year.

However, some of the narrative now suggests the scheme is contributing to intensification of NI farming, with large finishing units flourishing on the back of tens of thousands in BCR payments, while all farmers are having to feed a lot more concentrate to get cattle finished.

That latter view even made it into the UFU’s Nutrients Action Programme (NAP) submission, where it suggested that with additional concentrate fed, more phosphorus is coming onto beef farms, which could have “unintended consequences for water quality” in NI.

That was not the DAERA plan and at the time CAFRE ran a series of meetings pointing out that the key to getting cattle finished at around 24 months is having a rotational grazing system and making good quality silage.

But even if some farmers have fed more concentrate to drive weight gains, the overall impact is pretty insignificant given that beef mixes and compounds still only account for 15% of all feed used in NI.

It is also not correct to suggest that beef finishers are cashing in on the scheme or getting bigger because of it. Anyone buying cattle for finishing is operating in a very tight margin business and in reality, much of the £75 per head payment is being passed down the chain in higher prices paid for weanlings and stores.