The Department of Agriculture has confirmed that a substantial 2,700 farmers who have received approval through TAMS II must complete the works before the end of 2018. When the scheme initially opened in 2015, farmers were given three years to complete works.

However, this was reduced to 12 months after the sixth tranche of the scheme. What this means is that many of the projects which first received approval in 2015 must now be completed before the end of the year or the approval will expire.

The total budget for these 2,700 projects is an estimated €38m, according to the Department, which would be an average grant aid of €14,000 per applicant. The total allocated TAMS budget for 2018 is €70m.

A total of over 13,000 approvals have issued for investments. However, projects have been slow to be completed, with only 3,988 payment applications having been submitted to date, with payments issued to 3,155 farmers to the value of €44.5m. Over €2m of this issued in the past week.

New investments

A range of new equipment has been added to the list of eligible TAMS II investments over the past few weeks relating to sheep, dairy and tillage equipment.

In relation to sheep handling equipment, devices to work with electronic identification (EID) tagging for sheep have been introduced. Basic tag readers, as well as more advanced readers with the required software, are available. Reference costs of €710/item are for the more basic option, while more advanced options have a reference cost of €1,820.

On the dairy side, a batch AI crush has been added to eligible investments. The crush is costed per linear metre at €191/m.

A cover for a geomembrane-lined slurry or effluent store has also been added, in combination with a submersible pump and floaters for the cover, and is calculated based on the surface area of the store.

In a change to the fitting of replacement slats to a slatted tank, the new terms mean that slats will only be replaced on tanks built to the Department specifications S123.

This means that replacement of slats will not be undertaken on a slurry or effluent tank built with concrete blocks with a depth greater than 1.2m.

While GPS steering equipment had been available for tractors, this has now been extended to include combines, which is costed at €9,400 for a new machine. The reference cost of a retrofit is €10,800.

Also added on the tillage side is a furrow press.

Heavy cambridge rollers have been altered to include paddles.

A hydraulic motor which would be permanently fixed to the machine, to replace a PTO shaft, has also been added. This may be used to replace the PTO drive for low power requirement machines.

The hydraulic motor must be driven by the hydraulics of the tractor and connected to the tractor using hydraulic pipes.

The hydraulic motor must be permanently fixed to the machine for which it is being used, with a shut-off system required to be fitted beside the hydraulic motor.