Desk inspections are being carried out now on the Sheep Welfare Scheme. The scheme provides payment of €10 per breeding ewe for eligible farmers.

Some farmers participating in the scheme have been asked this week to send their 2018 scheme action record book and any other relevant documentation for an administrative check to the Department.

In the correspondence, these farmers have been warned that failure to produce or forward the scheme action record book when requested will be seen as a breach of the obligations and will result in no payments for the relevant scheme year and a 20% administrative penalty based on the overall amount which would have been payable in the scheme year.

Action book

The action book acts as a diary to record the completed actions from the scheme.

The scheme actions are applicable to flocks of breeding ewes and are separated into lowland and hill flock actions.

Farmers are separated into a certain flock type, depending on the sheep census records held by the Department for 2015. The various action categories are shown in Table 1.

At the time of entry into the scheme, applicants had to choose one action from category A and one action from category B as appropriate to their flock type (lowland or hill).

Farmers must record details regarding these actions in their record books when they are completed.

Therefore, there are some actions that some farmers cannot complete until the breeding season gets under way; for example, mineral supplementation or scanning.

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that farmers who were asked to submit their action record books for inspection in this situation can return their books without recording these certain actions.

In the past, farmers in this situation have included a note with their books to notify the Department that these actions will be completed and recorded in due course. However, other actions, such as lameness control and flystrike control, should be recorded in books as usual.