Tillage farmers with oats will be first in the queue for the €10m Straw Incorporation Measure, should the pilot scheme be oversubscribed.

As the implications of this sink in, farmers are planting spring oats to maximise their chances of gaining admission to the scheme. On advice from advisers, some are planting a single plot, even as little as 1ha.

The ranking system devised by the Department of Agriculture is detailed in the terms and conditions of the scheme.

The €10m budget can only extend to about 40,000ha of cereals

Under it, oats are the first ranked crop, followed by wheat and rye (banded together), then barley and finally oilseed rape. In the case of each crop, farmers are divided into four sub categories, depending on whether they have cover crops in GLAS and how much grasssland they have.

The implication of this is that a farmer with one parcel of oats will rank ahead of any farmer with no oats.

It seems from the rankings that a farmer with one parcel of oats will qualify all the rest of his eligible crop, whatever that crop might be.

The €10m budget can only extend to about 40,000ha of cereals. If all of the estimated 17,000ha of oilseed rape being planted were to gain entry to the scheme, the budget would stretch to an additional 30,000ha of cereals, meaning the total potential area the scheme can encompass would stretch to 47,000ha.

Some are even considering ripping up planted cereals to plant an oats crop

While there was a general awareness of the ranking system, its full implications are only sinking in, after many farmers have completed their spring planting. Some are even considering ripping up planted cereals to plant an oats crop. This is particularly true in the southeast, where straw prices are always poorest.

A Department of Agriculture spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal: “The straw incorporation measure is a significant support for the arable sector and is being run as a pilot measure.

“The prioritisation of entry to the scheme is aimed principally at supporting growers with more than 85% of their farmed area under cropping.”