Details of a £25m coronavirus support package approved by the Stormont executive for farmers in northern Ireland are being finalised at present. Farmers across five sectors including dairy, beef, sheep and horticulture are eligible for support. A senior DAERA official has confirmed that payments will be issued in mid-September.

Steven Millar said that the current plan is for the scheme to open in the first week of September, with eligible farmers receiving notification in writing from the department.

“It will be open for two weeks for people to respond and then we will make the payments the following week, so we are looking at the third week of September for the payments,” he said.

Details

This timeline applies to coronavirus support in the dairy, beef, sheep and potato sectors.

The exact details of support for the ornamental horticulture sector are still to be finalised, but Millar said he expects payments to be issued in October.

“We will allow people [in the ornamental horticulture sector] longer to apply because they have more information to gather up,” he said during briefing at Stormont’s agriculture committee on Friday.

Scheme overview

Dairy

Payments will be a flat rate of 1.28p/l (1.41c/l) on all milk supplied from March to June 2020, excluding any milk which was under a fixed price scheme at over 26.68p/l (29.6c/l).

Beef

A payment of £33/head ((€36.67) will be paid on all prime cattle and cows slaughtered (or exported for slaughter) between 16 February and 30 June 2020.

A payment of £40/head (€44.20) is available on cattle slaughtered between 29 March and 16 May 2020.

While a veal payment worth £13.50/head (€14.92) is also available for a relatively small number of calves that were slaughtered between eight to 12 months of age between 5 April and 23 May 2020.

Sheep

Farmers will receive £6.88/head (€7.60) on all lambs and ewes slaughtered between 22 March and 18 April 2020. Exports to the Republic of Ireland are eligible, as long as the sheep were registered on APHIS.

Potatoes

There is also a payment of up to £136/t (€150) available to potato growers for losses incurred from 17 March to 31 July 2020.

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