An analysis by the Irish Farmers Journal of what a typical beef and sheep farm is likely to receive in farm payments during 2022 points to a major disparity in financial support on either side of the Irish border.

Using reasonable assumptions, the work suggests that a farm in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) is likely to receive over 30% more support this year than a counterpart in NI.

The example is based on a 50ha farm carrying 30 suckler cows and 100 ewes. Excluded from the analysis are any payments made to the farm under agri-environment schemes (GLAS in ROI, EFS in NI) or grants received for capital expenditure (TAMS in ROI, FBIS in NI).

BPS

In the NI example, the only support coming is via the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS). We assume that the farm has BPS entitlements around the NI average, and have included the one-off 2.04% increase to payments announced in September 2022. Total direct payments therefore come to £15,573.

In ROI, a range of schemes are available to the farm. The largest payment is the BPS, which historically in ROI has been at a lower rate per hectare than NI.

In the example, it is assumed that the farm receives the ROI average, which is approximately €266/ha. That gives a total BPS of €13,300.

ANC

The vast majority of farmers in ROI still receive payments under the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) scheme, with almost 99,000 sharing from a pot worth €247m. In our example, we assume the farm is in Category 3 (less severe area), so receives €93/ha on the first 8ha, and €88.25 on the remaining area to a maximum of 30ha. It gives an ANC payment of €2,685.50.

There is no longer a specific less favoured area support payment in NI. The last ANC money was paid out in 2018.

Targeted payments

Outside of these area based schemes, beef and sheep farmers in the South can also avail of various targeted schemes. Conditions do apply and there is additional bureaucracy, but any extra effort on behalf of the farmer is often simply good practice.

In June 2022, Minister for Agriculture in ROI Charlie McConalogue launched a €56m Fodder Support Scheme to help beef and sheep farmers with rising input costs and ensure sufficient feed is in-store for the coming winter.

With a maximum payment of €1,000 per farm, nearly 70,000 applications were received. Each farm is to receive an average of €760 this December.

In the recent Irish budget announcement, it was confirmed that the fodder scheme will roll over to 2023.

Cows and sheep

In addition to fodder support, our example farm can also avail of payments relating to suckler cows and sheep.

In 2019, the Irish exchequer-funded Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme for sucklers (BEEP-S) was launched, with the aim of improving the weaning efficiency of suckler cows by collecting liveweights of calves.

Resultant data is sent to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) and is part of wider efforts to improve the genetic merit of the Irish cattle herd.

Under BEEP-S farmers get paid for weighing cows and calves, and can also draw down money for meal feeding/vaccinating calves, and for taking faecal egg samples.

On a herd of 30 suckler cows, BEEP-S is worth €2,500 in 2022. Payments to farmers under BEEP-S are to continue in 2023, although total funded is reducing from €40m to €28m in 2023.

BDGP

A new Suckler Cow Efficiency Programme is coming under the next CAP, to replace the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP).

Under the BDGP, farmers are required to record sire details at calving, take a tissue tag sample from calves to be genotyped by ICBF, complete a survey on herd performance and breed from productive cows.

The payment rate is €142.50/ha for the first 6.66ha, with the remaining eligible forage land paid at €120/ha. In our example, BDGP is worth €2,550 to this farm in 2022.

The BDGP scheme will continue in a new format in 2023 incorporating the weighing task from the current BEEP-S scheme, and offer higher payments frontloaded on the first 10 cows in the herd. Funding of up to €50m is to be available.

Ewes

The final payment included in our example comes from the Sheep Welfare Scheme (SWS).

Under this scheme, farmers must keep good records and implement various actions such as lameness control or scanning post-breeding. Farmers meeting the various requirements get a payment of €10 per ewe.

Difference

Taking everything together, our analysis shown in Table 1 suggests that the same farm just across the border in ROI will receive nearly £5,000 more in payments in 2022 than a farm in NI.

That difference is obviously partly dependent on the rate used to convert euro to sterling. In our example, we applied a rate of €1 = £0.89092, which is the same rate used to permanently convert all NI BPS entitlements to sterling in 2021.

It should also be pointed out that in our example, the farm is relatively lightly stocked, and this payment gap between the farms would be significantly greater if a high stocking rate is carried.

At the same time, it is fair to point out that the difference might be less in other sectors such as dairy or tillage.

But as well as ANC payments, farmers in ROI have access to schemes such as the €10m Tillage Incentive Scheme, the €15m Straw Incorporation Measure and €2m to encourage farmers to grow multi-species swards (MSS).

The recent Irish budget included a new €8m scheme to support the spreading of lime, plus further support for MSS and red clover swards.

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