Following a meeting with DAERA officials last week, the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) has said that NI’s allocation of the €350m EU Exceptional Adjustment Aid for livestock vulnerable sectors should focus on primarily supporting animal health measures.

The UK allocation of the EU Exceptional Adjustment Aid package equates to around £30m with the UFU estimating that NI’s share will be around £4.5m. It is part of a wider €500m EU aid package, which includes the €150m voluntary milk supply reduction scheme announced by the European Commission in July.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, UFU chief executive Wesley Aston said that by focussing on animal health across all sectors, the funding could be used constructively.

“A flat-rate payment across dairy farmers or all livestock farmers would have little impact. We want this money to have a legacy effect on farms,” he said. The first measure the UFU has proposed is to provide an incentive for removal of persistently infected (PI) calves in the BVD eradication scheme.

Using similar compensation rates to the Republic of Ireland of €140 for beef-bred PI calves and €100 for dairy calves, Aston estimates that this will cost around £1.3m over three years.

For the pig industry, Aston suggested that £0.5m could be used to help fund an independent facilitator to take on a strategic review of the pig sector in NI.

The review has already received some initial funding from Invest NI to explore a range of issues including pig health, marketing, biosecurity and disease.

In the sheep sector, Aston maintained that some producers have cut back on the use of vaccines as a cost-saving measure. He said that the UFU has proposed a voucher scheme to help reduce the cost of vaccines for a defined period.

Other proposals have also been put to DAERA officials, including a scheme aimed at reducing the cost of soil analysis.

“We also want to make sure that the system is easy to administer from a government point of view,” he said.

On enquiry, a DAERA spokesperson said: “DAERA Minister Michelle McIlveen is currently considering how NI’s share of EU Exceptional Adjustment Aid could best be used to address the particular needs of our farmers.”

While the UFU has lobbied for support to go to all livestock sectors, others such as Fair Price Farming NI have lobbied for the support to go to dairy farmers only.

DAERA has until 30 November to notify the Commission on how it will use this money.

That notification must include its rationale if the money is to be used in sectors other than the milk sector and the impact of the measures chosen in stabilising the market.

There is also the option that national governments can top up the package, but given tight finances at Stormont this is unlikely to happen. Instead, the main focus is to maximise the NI share of the UK envelope.