Sheep Improvement Scheme

There have been a number of developments in the Sheep Improvement Scheme this week. The deadline to submit applications has been extended from 19 December to midnight on 9 January 2023.

Explaining the decision, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue said he wants to give as much time to farmers and advisers to fully familiarise themselves with the requirements of the new scheme and to submit their application online.

The Department of Agriculture has also provided more clarity around how farmers who select the popular measure of pregnancy scanning can work through the challenge presented by a change in the start date of the scheme in Year 2 and still satisfy scheme requirements.

Year 1 of the new Sheep Improvement Scheme will still commence on 1 February 2023 and end on 31 December 2023. This means that farmers who normally scan in January will not satisfy the pregnancy scanning requirement in Year 1.

The Department has said that it will write to all farmers in January reminding them that actions selected for Year 1 must be completed between 1 February 2023 and 31 December 2023.

However, the letter will also state that the Department will give applicants affected an opportunity to change their action for Year 1 of the scheme with the action reverting to pregnancy scanning in Year 2.

It will also remind farmers that where they have opted to complete the genotyped ram action in Year 1 then this will replace the need to carry out pregnancy scanning between 1 February and 31 December 2023.

The Department states that this mechanism to overcome the challenges presented in Year 1 will lead to a smoother operation of the scheme in subsequent years.

In this week’s announcement the Department also highlighted that the terms and conditions for the scheme have been updated to clarify the requirements for the genotyped ram action and parasite control option.

TAMS deadline

The final tranche of the current Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) is closing for applications on 16 December 2022. The On-Farm Capital Investment Scheme, which replaces TAMS, comes in to place on 1 January 2023.

There has been no confirmation on what date the scheme will open, but it is likely that the first couple of tranches will generate a high level of applications, given there is a high number of farmers who maxed out their investment ceiling under TAMS, and are waiting to submit an application once the new scheme opens.

Farmers with capacity to draw down funding under TAMS and interested in submitting an application need to weigh up their options.

Reference costings are likely to be updated in the On-Farm Capital Investment Scheme meaning there is the possibility of receiving a higher level of grant aid.

However, if the planned investment is time sensitive then there is also the possibility of the application facing a much higher level of competition and maybe being delayed.

There have been questions over the last week asking if the list of eligible items for grant aid for sheep farmers is likely to change in the new scheme.

There have been no reports to suggest it will, but all items are currently being reviewed.