This year, cashflow has been very hard to manage on many farms. The fodder shortage in early spring and the drought in June and July has resulted in large sums of money being spent on bought-in feed.

To help alleviate the extra cost burden, European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan said he was allowing countries to pay a larger October Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) advance to farmers.

“Seventy percent payments now can be brought forward to October for pillar 1, and 85% for pillar 2, like we did last year,” he said.

This 70% advance payment has now been confirmed by the Department of Agriculture, following recent appeals by it to the European Commission for permission to increase advance payments. Balancing payments are expected to start from 1 December 2018.

Payment calculation

The main BPS payment and the greening payment are calculated separately (including any reductions and/or penalties applied) and then added together to form the total direct payment.

To work out the value of a farmer’s main BPS payment, the Department multiplies the number of entitlements the farmer used correctly to claim for payment by the farmer’s average entitlement value.

Where farmers do not meet scheme rules, their payments can be reduced and penalties applied.

Where the claimed area is over-declared and the total eligible area determined is not sufficient to support the number of entitlements held, then reductions/penalties will be applied.

Further payment

Some farmers may also qualify for a further payment under the Young Farmers Scheme or under the Aid for Protein Crops Scheme.

The Young Farmers Scheme is used to provide an additional payment to any person who qualifies as a young farmer.

It is available to successful farmers for a maximum period of five years depending on the year of commencement of farming.