€5/ewe payment boost in Sheep Welfare Scheme

The Sheep Welfare Scheme (SWS) introduced in 2024 has been rolled over to 2025, with a funding boost of €7m, or €5/ewe, bringing the total funds available to €22m, or €13 per ewe.

This means that farmers participating in both the SWS and the Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) are in line to receive up to €25/ewe in support in 2025.

In announcing the €5/ewe lift in payment, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue outlined that “this is a 150% increase in funding from €10 to €25 [per ewe] since I became Minister and is by far the largest payment ever made to sheep farmers".

Scheme metrics

The SWS is operated as an annual scheme, meaning farmers not currently participating will have an opportunity to join in 2025.

The finer details of the scheme have not been released and are unlikely to be in the short term, but it is envisaged that the scheme will remain broadly the same as in 2024, with farmers receiving payment in lieu of competing a number of actions.

Category A actions in 2024 included sheep shearing or body condition scoring, while category B actions included vaccination for clostridial diseases or plunge dipping to control external parasites.

It is not known if these measures will remain in future programmes, but given the pressure on wool markets, it is reasonable to expect this action will remain in place subject to approval by the European Commission.

Ewe numbers

The number of ewes on which payment is calculated will likely remain based on historical figures.

The 2024 scheme payable number was based on the higher of the number of ewes declared on an applicant’s 2023 census return or on the average of ewe numbers recorded in the census period 2020 to 2022.