There were over 24,800 applications submitted to the 2026 Beef Welfare Scheme by the recent deadline of 23 September.
The number of applications is up by over 400 farms, or an increase of 1.4% on 2025 levels and reflects renewed optimism in suckler farming.
Applicants registered to receive text messages from the Department of Agriculture and who have been accepted into the scheme received a message earlier this week stating that they had “an item of online correspondence regarding your BWS application”.
This is simply informing applicants that their acceptance letter is available to view on MyAgfood.ie. Applicants who didn't receive a text but also applied can check their MyAgfood.ie portal to check the status of the application.
The letter can be accessed by logging in to your MyAgfood.ie account and selecting or searching for the 2026 Beef Welfare Scheme tab.
This will bring you in to the Beef Welfare Scheme portal. On the right of the screen there is the word ‘actions’ with three dots underneath it.
Clicking on these three dots presents two options – view application or document manager.
Clicking on the latter will then present the letter with the same ‘actions’ word and three dots. Clicking on these dots and then view document will give you the option to download the letter.
Valuable information
The letter simply outlines the actions selected by an applicant and provides a summary of what is required to comply with these actions. The most important or time-sensitive aspect for many farmers is to ensure that they have purchased required vaccines, faecal egg test kits or silage kits by the deadline of 13 October 2026.
Helpline numbers
The letter also details useful contacts for the Beef Welfare Scheme section as follows:
*This story was edited on 01/10/2026 as the number of applications was incorrectly listed as 28,800 by the Irish Farmers Journal when it should have been 24,800.
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