The increase in forage crops sown this year along with surplus grass developing on some farms has opened up the opportunity for temporary grazing agreements for sheep. The requirement to notify the Department of Agriculture of such movements depends on the type of farm sheep are moving to and whether or not there are livestock already present.

Before delving into the regulations there is another important aspect of temporary grazing agreements that should be discussed.

If lands are submitted on an applicant’s Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) application under the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) then lands cannot be rented to another party.

This is because the terms and conditions of the scheme state that in order for land to be deemed eligible for payment the lands concerned must be available to the applicant for the full calendar year. Land rented on an 11-month conacre system also must abide by the same rules with the land under the control of the applicant that declares it on his/her BPS for the full 11 months.

This does not however omit temporary grazing agreements and the BPS applicant taking in sheep for short-term grazing as control of the land is not relinquished by the BPS/ANC applicant. Such agreements work successfully with costs involved generally agreed on a daily, weekly or monthly rate for grazing animals.

An increase in the area of forage crops sown is opening up the opportunity for temporary sheep movements to graze crops.

Department notification

As touched on previously, the requirement to notify the Department of sheep moving farms in these agreements depends on the type of farm sheep are moving to. There are three main scenarios:

1 Movement to lands with no stock: This is quite a common occurrence where sheep are moving to tillage farms to graze forage crops. Where the movement is to a farm with no stock present sheep can be moved to and from temporary grazing without dispatch documents and without notifying the Department.

2 Movement to farms where livestock are present: If sheep are moving to a holding where livestock are present then the Department must be notified. Unlike a permanent farm-to-farm movement, the onus lies on the owner of the sheep to notify the Department as there is no change of ownership with the movement.

The Department can be notified by simply completing the dispatch document and sending the pink copy to your local DVO. When sheep return from temporary grazing, this can be completed by sending the white copy of the dispatch document clearly marked “return from temporary grazing”.

3 Movement to a detached land block on a livestock holding: A common exception to the above scenario is where sheep are moved to a holding that has livestock but sheep are being moved to a separate land block to where the farmer’s animals are located. In this case, sheep can be moved to a parcel or outfarm block without notifying the Department provided there are no livestock on any part of the land sheep are being moved to.

Important considerations

There are a number of other important considerations that should be taken into account. All animals must adhere to National Sheep Identification System (NSIS) rules.

This means that any lambs leaving the holding must be tagged with suitable tags if not already complete while mature sheep must possess two permanent tags.

Sheep coming onto the holding of the BPS/ANC applicant do not contribute to ANC stocking rate calculations as there is no change of ownership.

The only exception to this is for bovines where animals are moved under a contract-rearing agreement and the movement has been recorded through the Department’s Animal Movement and Identification system for bovines.

It is not common, but in some instances the owner of the sheep may wish to gain nitrates credit for the organic nitrogen and phosphorus produced while sheep are on the temporary holding to reduce their annual production.

If so, and the movement is not recorded with your local DVO, then notice of the movement, using Record 4, Temporary Movement Form, must be sent to the DAFM nitrates section in Johnstown Castle, Wexford.

The last piece of advice concerns putting an agreement in place at the outset so there is no fall-out at a later stage. The most important area that raises conflict is the length of the grazing period while other factors should include who is responsible for fencing and if supplementary feeding is permitted.