The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has issued updates for participants in the Agri-Climate Rural Environmental Scheme (ACRES).

The Annual Declaration for the Conservation of Rare Breeds actions can now be completed for 2025 on the ACRES rare breeds online portal, on the AgFood system.

The declaration may be completed by the ACRES adviser or by the participant themselves.

To be eligible for this action, participants must have at least 0.10 livestock unit (LU) eligible for payment each year.

The payment for this action is made in arrears, based on the monthly average livestock units of owned registered animals over the previous recording year.

The payment for the 2025 claim will form part of 2026 payment, which is due to be issued in the second quarter of 2026.

The following is required to make the claim:

  • Proof of membership of the relevant breed society.
  • Identification documents and certificates issues by the relevant breed society for each registered animal.

    • Deadline for non-productive investments

    Participants of the ACRES co-operation scheme are reminded the application window for non-productive investments (NPIs) for 2026 annual works plans (AWP) is open until 14 October 2026.

    The Department notes that for tranche one participants, whose contracts began on 1 January 2023, this will be the last opportunity to apply for NPIs during their contracts, which are set to expire on 31 December 2027.

    ACRES advisers may complete and submit NPI annual works plans through the generic land management (GLAM) mapping system, accessible through MyAgFood.

    Only one NPI-AWP may be submitted per participant during this application window.

    The application may only be amended as a draft. Once submitted, the NPI-AWP will not be possible to amend.