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Payment rates of €100/head and €40/head will apply for finishers and suckler farmers in the €100m Brexit beef fund, the Irish Farmers Journal can reveal.
Finishers will be able to apply for a maximum of 100 animals under the scheme, which will be called the Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM).
These cattle had to be over 12 months of age when they were sent for slaughter. The proposed rate for these cattle is to pay €100/head.
For suckler farmers, they can apply for a maximum of 40 suckler cows which calved in 2018. The proposed rate for these animals is €40/head.
Dairy herds and dealer or agent cattle herds will not be eligible to apply to the scheme.
The draft scheme proposal was presented to farm organisations by Minister for Agriciulture Michael Creed in Backweston on Thursday morning.
As revealed by the Irish Farmers Journal two weeks ago, farmers who apply to the BEAM scheme will have to be in either the Bord Bia Quality Assurance scheme or an environmental scheme.
Conditions
Farmers will have to reduce their nitrogen output from animal manure in order to be eligible to apply to the €100m Brexit beef fund.
The Department is not proposing a herd cut for eligibility but instead wants farmers to reduce the level of nitrogen produced in cattle manure by 5%. The 5% reduction will be based on a reference period and a target period within 12 months.
Reducing nitrogen output from farms could be achieved by selling cattle off farms or at a younger slaughter age. The Irish Farmers Journal understands that this method does not impose a mandatory cut in cow numbers. It is up to individual farmers to decide how to adjust their nitrogen levels.
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