The Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) has been designed to encourage farmers to invest in animal welfare and environmentally beneficial investments before investing in additional milking equipment, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has said.

“It is for this reason that there are limits on robotic milkers where farmers have previously benefitted from funding for these under previous TAMS,” he said, in response to parliamentary questions from TDs Matt Carthy, Holly Cairns and Pádraig O’Sullivan this week.

There will be a 120-cow limit in TAMS III for farmers looking to invest in milking parlours or robots, with a further 160-cow limit on those in registered farm partnerships or those in the Young Farmer Capital Investment Scheme.

“On the dairy sector, the list of potential investments is larger than ever before.

Additional investments

"In addition to the investments being carried over from TAMS II, there is a wide range of additional investments being introduced for farmers, including farm roadways, bovine fencing, health and fertility monitoring systems, automatic drafting systems, public road underpasses and milk recording systems,” the Minister said.

“When a farmer is planning to update their dairy system, investment in the milking machine is only a portion of the required investment.

"It is important that dairy farmers also invest in animal housing, slurry storage, fodder storage and making their holding more accessible.”

Macra

The cow limits have angered farmers, with Macra writing to TDs on the issue.

It has said that farmers with robots are at a “significant disadvantage” when compared with farmers with herringbone parlours, who can avail of supports for up to 10 units.

“It was widely stated that previous investments under TAMS II would not affect any future investment under the next TAMS, which is now TAMS III.

"What has occurred now is that robotic farmers who have previously invested in milking parlour equipment are ineligible to apply for milking parlour support under the new TAMS III,” it said.