Early rush into €16/t liming scheme

Farmers have been hot off the mark to apply to the National Liming Programme 2023.

Over 1,900 applications were received by the Department of Agriculture in the first week of the scheme’s opening.

Three-month wait for tillage scheme

Advisers heard that details of the Tillage Incentive Scheme are still being ironed out and the scheme is not expected to open until June.

Payments will be based on lands declared on Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) scheme applications.

The tillage scheme terms and conditions are being currently written by officials but EU State aid approval and sanction from the Department of Public Expenditure will be needed before the scheme will open.

Herd banding breakdown so far

Most dairy farmers who had submitted average cow yield data to the Department by last Wednesday – around three-quarters of those who had notified their yields – fell into the middle band of 92kg N/ha.

Approximately 2% to 3% are in the lower band of 80kg N/ha and 12% are in the highest band of 106kg N/ha.

Farmers in the highest band will hit stocking rate limits with about 16% fewer cows when compared with the excretion values currently used across all herds uniformly.

Last week, one in three farmers had yet to submit banding data, meaning that they will automatically be placed in the highest band if they fail to submit information before the deadline of 31 March.

Sheep scheme and genotyped rams

The Department of Agriculture suggested that “flexibility” could be granted to farmers in the Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) around the genotyped ram requirement if issues arise with the supply of eligible rams.

However, as it stands, all farmers participating in the scheme are required to carry out the action of purchasing a genotyped ram at least once during the first three years of the scheme. Those with over 150 ewes will be required to buy two rams over the course of the scheme.