In excess of 20,000 farmers applied to the National Beef Welfare Scheme before the deadline of 11.59pm on 24 September. The number of applications stood at over 20,400 as of Tuesday morning, 23 September.

The rate of applications intensified greatly in recent days, with over 5,000 submitted in the previous week and another couple of thousand applications likely over the final 36-hour application window.

There are no late applications possible beyond the current deadline.

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The scheme offers a support payment of up to €75/calf to a maximum of 45 calves. This is in lieu of farmers completing mandatory meal feeding which has a payment of €35/head, clostridial/pneumonia vaccination (€15/head) and silage testing or faecal egg counts (€25/head). The latter action is new in 2025 and participants must purchase test kits by 13 October 2025.

The scheme is funded by National Exchequer funding and it is hoped that it will be an automatic inclusion in Budget 2026 funding.