TAMS II continues to be a popular scheme among farmers, with over €35.2m paid out to date under the scheme and a substantial €15.5m having issued to young farmers alone. Over 12,400 approvals have issued to farmers in the scheme to date. However, only 3,360 payment claims have been submitted, with nearly 2,700 farmers receiving payment to date. This leaves over 9,000 farmers who have a TAMS II approval for which they have not yet submitted a payment claim.

These farmers are reminded to keep an eye on when their approval will expire, as many farmers who made applications in early 2015 will be required to complete works and submit a payment claim by the end of 2018 or early 2019.

Different schemes

In TAMS, there are seven different schemes that farmers can apply under, depending on their enterprise and conditions. These are the Animal Welfare, Safety and Nutrient Storage Scheme (AWSNS); Dairy Equipment Scheme (DES); Low Emission Slurry Spreading Equipment Scheme (LESS); Organic Capital Investment Scheme (OCIS); Pig and Poultry Investment Scheme (PPIS); Young Farmers Capital Investment Scheme (YFCIS) and the Tillage Capital Investment Scheme (TCIS).

With strong dairy prices in 2017 and dairy farms rapidly expanding, it is hardly surprising that DES came out as the most popular option for farmers, with 887 farmers paid a total of €11.2m to date. The most popular options under DES include milk storage and cooling equipment, milking machines and in-parlour meal-feeding systems. The second-highest number of farmers paid were young farmers, with 581 paid out through the YFCIS. A total of €15.5m was paid out to young farmers, which equates to over 40% of all money paid out under the scheme to date.

Next up was the AWSNS, with 558 farmers receiving €4.2m to date, which equates to an average grant of €7,540 per farmer. This is in line with the smaller investments being made through this strain of the scheme, with sheep fencing the most popular investment item under AWSNS.

In Table 1, we list the top 10 most popular investment items across all schemes in TAMS. The three most popular options combine to make a general slatted shed; a mass concrete wall, a roofed feed passage and a slatted area.

The current tranche of TAMS II runs until 23 February 2018. Once this tranche closes, the next tranche will open the following day and run for approximately three months. Approvals since tranche six of the scheme opened have been issuing for six months for mobile equipment and 12 months for fixed investments, so farmers should be mindful of this when making applications.