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Livestock farmers in NI deemed eligible for the COVID-19 support payment should have received a letter from the Department this week pointing them in the direction of an application to the scheme via DAERA online services.
The online application is relatively straightforward, and lists the payments each business is entitled to across dairy, beef and sheep.
When completing the online application, if you agree with the information displayed, then farmers should select ‘Accept’ for each individual payment. However, if you believe that the quantity of animals, or milk, is too low, DAERA advice is that you should still select ‘Accept’ but follow up with a phone call to the Department (Phone: 0300-200 7848) to clarify the situation.
It is only in the case where you think the quantities listed are too high that you should select ‘Reject’.
You should then contact DAERA on 0300-200 7848 to tell them what you think the correct figures are.
Before submitting the application, there are then two questions relating to State aid, and in the vast majority of cases farmers should answer ‘Yes’ to both.
For dairy farmers, a payment of 1.28p/l will be made on all milk supplied from March to June 2020, excluding milk supplied in fixed milk contracts where the price is above the February reference price used by DAERA of 26.88p/l.
That potentially affects some Dale Farm, Aurivo and Glanbia Milk suppliers. In the case of the Lakeland Dairies fixed price scheme, which pays 26p/l from April to September and 28p/l from October to March, the March volume is excluded, but April to June is eligible.
DAERA has used data provided by individual processors as the basis for payments. Out of a total volume across the period of 912m litres, the 1.28p/l is being paid out on 856.5m litres.
Originally DAERA intended giving the beef payment to the last person who owned the animal at least 30 days pre-slaughter.
But on reflection, officials decided that this would have resulted in a significant chunk of the £7m fund going to farmers who did not actually take a financial hit.
Instead DAERA is relying on a few key trigger dates for ownership, which effectively brings into the scheme farmers who sold strong stores in marts this spring
The first key date is 15 February 2020. For all prime cattle, cull cows, bulls over 12 months, slaughtered between 16 February and 30 June 2020, a payment of £33 per head is going to whoever was the last registered keeper on 15 February.
Complicated
Some cattle will also attract a second payment of £40 per head, and this is where it gets complicated.
The key trigger date for this £40 payment is 28 March. Where an animal was slaughtered between 29 March and 16 May, the £40 goes to the last registered keeper on 28 March. So cattle slaughtered between these dates get £73 per head.
In most cases the £73 will go to the same person, but if the animal was traded between 16 February and 28 March, then £33 goes to the owner of the animal on 15 February, and £40 to the owner on 28 March.
However, a £40 payment will also go to someone who owned an animal on 28 March, sold it on between 29 March and 16 May, with it slaughtered by someone else by 30 June. Assuming the owner on 28 March, also owned the animal on 15 February, they will get £73, not just £40 per head.
What all this means is that if a beef finisher bought an animal after 15 February, and slaughtered it by end of June, they won’t get the £33 in any circumstance (it goes to the owner on 15 February). They will only get the £40 per head if they owned the animal on 28 March, and it was slaughtered between 29 March and 16 May.
Rose veal
There is also money going to a small number of producers of Rose veal (bulls killed between 8 and 12 months). For those cattle slaughtered from 16 February to 30 June, the owner on 15 February gets £33 per head. There is an additional £13.50 covering the period 5 April to 23 May, going to the last registered keeper of the animal on 4 April 2020.
150,000 cattle
Across the entire beef sector, around 150,000 cattle are eligible for payments, to include cattle slaughtered in NI, and those taken for direct slaughter in the Republic of Ireland and Britain. Animals imported for direct slaughter into NI are excluded, as are those slaughtered as part of TB controls. The registered owners are identified using APHIS.
In the sheep sector, just under 40,000 animals are eligible for a payment of £6.88 per head, to a total of £232,000. All sheep slaughtered during the period 22 March to 18 April 2020 are eligible, including those taken for direct slaughter in the Republic of Ireland and Britain. The payment goes to the last registered keeper on 21 March 2020.
That leaves the potato sector, with between 50 and 100 growers thought to be in line for payments up to a maximum of £136/t. The potatoes must have been intended for the processing market, with losses calculated as the difference between a £200/t reference price and the sale price (if sold at a loss), or the residual value (stock feed at £30/t) if still in store from 22 July 2020.
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