The Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) was launched by the Department of Agriculture in 2015 with a fund of €300m allocated over a six-year period. It is funded under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020.

A second instalment of the scheme (BDGP II) was opened in 2017 and also runs for six years.

Payment is calculated on an area-based mechanism at a rate of €142.50 for each of the first 6.66ha of eligible forage area and €120 on each remaining eligible forage hectare.

The eligible hectares was deemed as the number of cows on an applicant’s holding in 2014 divided by a stocking rate of 1.5 cows/ha. This became known as the reference number of animals.

This translates to a payment of €95 for the first 10 cows in a herd and approximately €80 thereafter (fell lower for a small percentage of very highly stocked farms).

Direct annual costs include a cost of €22 per genomic sample with 60% of the reference number of animals sampled.

Despite the majority of the payment going direct to the farmer, the scheme has been impaired by negative reaction from the outset.

The area attracting the greatest reaction surrounded the requirement to embrace star ratings and genetic indices with a number of pedigree societies particularly vocal in their opposition.

The negative narrative surrounding the scheme at the beginning contributed to 7,281 or one in every four of the 31,799 farmers who applied to participate in BDGP I or II leaving the programme.

Of these, 859 were excluded for failure to complete training or carbon navigator requirements. Most withdrew in year one, avoiding a clawback in payments.

Benefit

A significant benefit of the scheme has been a continued strengthening in Ireland’s animal database. The ICBF recently released reports to show that progress in genetic gain is being made under BDGP. This progress and improvement in breeding efficiency is highlighted as being valuable in climate change discussions which are likely to intensify.

The Department of Agriculture is keen to accommodate participants and work with farmers to ensure targets are met and payments are not compromised. The latest of these is greater flexibility announced this week in eligibility criteria for stock bulls (see page 62), which should see another 1,200 herds accommodated and leave just 500 herds facing potential non-compliance penalties.

BEEP scheme

Suckler farmers were also given access to a second scheme following the introduction of the Beef Environmental Efficiency Pilot (BEEP) earlier this year. With a budget of €20m, the one-year scheme offers payment of €40 per eligible cow-calf unit. The payment is for weighing of an unweaned calf and her dam born between 1 July 2018 and 30 June 2019 with weights submitted before 1 November. After a delayed rollout of weighing scales, the scheme is up and running with weights steadily being submitted. The uptake was disappointing given the potential payment with just over 18,000 herds (450,000 suckler cows) involved.