On 1 April 2026 we entered into the second year of the £100 per head suckler cow scheme, and with that has come changes to the eligibility requirements to achieve the payment.

For mature suckler cows, the maximum calving interval has reduced from 415 days to 405 days, while for first calving heifers the maximum age at calving has moved from 34 months down to 32 months.

In practice, this means that a cow which calved on 1 April 2025, must calve again by 11 May 2026 to get a payment.

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For heifers, any animals born before 1 August 2023 cannot receive a payment for age at first calving in the second year of the scheme.

The current plan is that this maximum age will drop to 30 months in the third year of the scheme, before reducing again to 29 months in the fourth year.

Over the same period the calving interval requirement for mature animals drops to 395 days in year three and to a maximum of 385 days after that.

Reports

For those suckler producers who have opted into the scheme, it is worth taking some time to assess how many animals met the conditions for payment in the first year, as well as the reasons why others missed out.

To do that, go to the DAERA website (daera-ni.gov.uk) and click on the link to the ‘Beef Sustainability Package’ on the home screen. The same sign-in details that are used to get onto NIFAIS will allow access to relevant data for your herd. Reports can be generated showing the date of last calving and the calving interval for each cow in the herd as well as the calving date and age at first calving for heifers.

Processed

For someone with 50 eligible calving events in the first year, they will receive a total payment of £5,000. It will probably take a few months for the money to be processed, so it might be mid-summer before it is issued. Part of that delay relates to normal rules around notification of births.

Farmers must tag an animal within 20 days of birth and notify the department within 27 days of birth, so it will be towards the end of April before the total number of eligible calving events in the first year of the scheme is finally determined.

There is also a requirement for a calf to have a known BVD status, so if a test result is yet to be uploaded onto NIFAIS, the calving event will be displayed as ineligible.

Five payments for fertile spring calvers

With the calving interval requirement reducing each scheme year, it will inevitably mean an increasing proportion of animals will miss out on payments . Even in the most fertile herds it is likely that up to 25% of the herd will not meet the 385-day target set for year four.

But in a spring herd there is an opportunity to compensate for that by having some cows getting the £100 payment five times across the four years.

To test that theory, take the example of a cow that calves on 5 April every year between 2025 and 2028 so has secured four £100 payments, but in the final year of the scheme the bull is put out a little earlier and this cow calves again on 30 March 2029.

In the final year, this animal has legitimately claimed the £100 payment on two occasions and a total of £500 across the four years of the scheme.

In fact, the same could happen in any of the scheme years – an April calver could gain a bit of time and calve in March the following year, so gets the payment twice in that 12-month period.

This scenario only works out for spring calving herds – the same opportunity does not exist for autumn herds and they can only get a maximum of four payments for each individual cow.

Other conditions

As well as the maximum calving interval, there is also a minimum – any interval of 270 days or less is not eligible for payment.

Aborted or stillborn calving events are eligible if within the minimum and maximum calving interval for that particular scheme year, although calves must be tagged, BVD tested and registered on NIFAIS.

Also, just because an animal misses out in one year because of an extended calving interval, it does not affect eligibility in subsequent years.

Minimum and maximum age for heifers

As well as the maximum age for first calving of 32 months in the current year, there is also a minimum calving age, with heifers that are less than 21 months old not eligible for payment.

If a heifer misses out this year, the animal can still get the £100 payment in subsequent years as long as the conditions around calving interval are met.