Funding for beef schemes has been maintained, with €45m allocated to a COVID-19 beef scheme with a focus on improving carbon efficiency.

Another €40m was allocated to the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) to allow the scheme to roll over to 2021.

The new COVID-19 beef scheme will be based on the Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme - Suckler (BEEP-S), with €40m out of the €45m in funding assigned to this.

The current BEEP-S scheme has over 27,000 farmers and offers a payment of €90/cow for the first 10 cows in the herd and €80/cow thereafter.

Payment in the 2020 scheme is based on two compulsory actions – farmers weighing cows and their calves and selecting between meal feeding of calves and implementing a vaccination programme for respiratory diseases, while a third voluntary option included faecal egg sampling of cows.

Dairy-bred calves

The other €5m of the new beef carbon scheme is to go to a calf weighing measure to support beef farmers weighing dairy calves.

There is a similar pilot currently in place from the 2020 budget, which offers €10 payment for every male dairy and dairy-beef calf and one- to two-year-old dairy-beef animals weighed on beef farms.

The allocation of €40m to the BDGP is designed to support the continuation of the scheme during the transitional period between CAP programmes.

It is thought that measures such as genotyping, data recording and breeding targets will remain in place

Some €41.49m was paid to 22,972 farmers under BDGP I and BDGP II in 2019.

It is thought that measures such as genotyping, data recording and breeding targets will remain in place, with breeding female targets possibly adjusted to account for an additional year.

It is expected that farmers who want to finish participating in the scheme in 2020 can do so.

Recovery fund

Beef finishers worried about the knock-on consequences of a hard Brexit will also be closely watching the details of the €3.4bn recovery fund to support sectors.