Every year, up to 8,000 farmers miss out on Area of Natural Constraints (ANC) payments. In order to qualify for the ANC Scheme, farmers are required to maintain a minimum stocking rate of 0.15 livestock units (LU) per forage hectare for seven consecutive months within the calendar year.

However, farmers are also required to maintain a minimum annual stocking rate of 0.15 LU per forage hectare over the 12 months of the year. For farmers who only hold stock for seven months of the year, they need to have an average stocking rate of 0.26 LU per forage hectare for these months.

Table 1 shows an outline of the minimum number of livestock that must be kept over seven consecutive months in order to have an average annual stocking rate of 0.26 LU per forage hectare.

The livestock unit value will depend on the type and age of the stock. However, it is important to know that all sheep and lambs have the same stocking value of 0.15 LU.

As we come into the back end of the year, farmers who only keep cattle or sheep over the grazing period should examine when cattle were purchased and how much longer they should be kept in order to qualify.

Every year, farmers sell cattle a week or two early and do not meet the minimum requirements.

With the weather turning wet in many parts of the west, more farmers may look at offloading cattle in the coming month.

For example, seven consecutive months is 15 February to 14 September, or 1 March to 28 September

According to figures from the Department, there are 102,000 farmers eligible for ANC payments.

However, every year, only 95,000 t0 96,000 farmers receive payments through the scheme, as other farmers do not comply with the requirements.

The three main reasons that farmers do not get payments are not meeting the seven-month stock retention period; not meeting the 12-month stocking rate average; or a failure to submit (or late submission of) the annual sheep census form.

In many cases, if farmers had looked at their numbers and outlined what stock they need to have kept, they would have gotten the payment, which can be a substantial source of income for any farm.

Payment rates

In 2018, there was a €25m increase to the ANC budget, while, in 2019, this has increased by a further €23m to bring the total funding to €250m.

The new payment rates mean that the maximum payment for hill farmers with 34ha or more of eligible land has increased to €4,128, an increase of just shy of €100 when compared with the 2018 scheme.

For 2019, the previous designated land types of mountain, more severely and less severely have changed to category 1, 2 and 3 respectively; for example if a farmer had 10ha of mountain lands in 2018, they now have 10ha of Category 1 lands.

New entrants

For new entrants who do not receive their herd number in sufficient time to meet the required stocking density, the density will be calculated proportionally on the amount of stock held over the remaining months of the year by reference to the start date of the herd number.

However, applicants are required to meet the minimum stocking density within 10 working days of receiving their herd number. Therefore, if you are new to farming and cannot hold cattle for seven consecutive months in 2019, as you started farming in July, you are still eligible for an ANC payment.

For farmers who have not yet held cattle for seven consecutive months in 2019, they will not receive payment until they do.

The donkey question

Every year, there are a number of farmers who will keep donkeys to be eligible for the payment. Donkeys are still equivalent to 1LU. However, from 2020, only 50% of the stocking density requirement can be fulfilled using donkeys. Applicants will be required to use other livestock to fulfil the other 50% requirement.