While Minister for Agriculture, Martin Heydon has not delved into any great detail on livestock schemes in his Budget 2026 speech, he has said he is “maintaining the existing allocation for various livestock schemes which will amount to €131m in 2026”.

This funding allocation allows for the continuation of the National Suckler Beef Welfare Scheme, the National Sheep Welfare Scheme and the National Dairy Beef Weighing Scheme while Minister Heydon has committed to continued funding for the National Genotyping Programme (NGP).

The latter NGP was allocated €5m in funding in Budget 2025 with a similar allocation expected in Budget 2026 to meet ongoing subsidised costs of genotyping.

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The programme will operate until December 2027.

Sheep scheme

Earlier in the day, Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Services, Reform and Digitalisation Jack Chambers announced that €20m in funding was being allocated to the sheep sector for 2026.

This is a reduction of €2m in the level of funding allocated in Budget 2025 but the Irish Farmers Journal understands that the Department of Agriculture envisages the payment rate remaining the same with a reduction in funding stemming from a reduction in the national flock.

The figure of €20m at a payment rate of €13/ewe would cover about 1.54m of the national flock which stood at 2.46m on 31 December 2024. It is predicted the flock could be anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 head lower in the next census.

Beef welfare

There were fears that the funding allocation of €28m for the National Beef Welfare Scheme was at risk due to additional funds to service the sharp jump in funding required for TB.

This has thankfully not materialised. There is no guarantee that the National Beef Welfare Scheme will continue in its current form in 2026, but what is known is that the funding is there to allow it to continue.

The scheme is positively received among farmers with in excess of 24,400 farmers applying to participate in 2025.

The scheme offers payment of €75/calf to a maximum of 45 calves per herd.

This is broken down in to a payment of €35/calf for a mandatory meal feeding action, €15 for vaccination for pneumonia or clostridial disease and €25 for faecal egg testing or silage testing. The scheme is relatively straightforward to administer and has been approved in its current format by the Department of Expenditure, so one would not expect many changes.

Dairy beef

The National Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme was reintroduced in Budget 2025 with funding of €6.5m.

The popular scheme provides a payment of €20 per calf up to a maximum of 50 calves or €1,000/herd in return for recording weights with the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation.

Again, there has been no confirmation of the scheme continuing but the minister’s comments point that way.

The additional funding not discussed above is required to meet funding commitments for schemes co-financed under the CAP Strategic Plan.