Small farmers in the west of Ireland signed up in droves to offload cattle through the Government’s Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM).

Thousands of small-scale farmers across the western seaboard from Clare to Donegal opted into the scheme, which saw some receiving the minimum €40 payment to reduce their overall herd size by 5% through the scheme.

Farmers could receive up to €11,600 for committing to reduce their cattle numbers, depending on how many animals they had slaughtered the previous year.

The scheme provided €100 per finished animal, up to a maximum of 100, or €40 per suckler cow up to a maximum of 40. While the scheme was primarily focused on attracting large-scale finishers, the majority of farmers who have signed up appear to finish cattle on a very small scale.

Overall, 33,410 farmers signed up to the scheme and 22,028 received a payment of €2,000 or less. While large numbers of farmers in Cork and Tipperary signed up to the scheme, analysis of Department of Agriculture figures shows that the majority of farmers in receipt of payments under €2,000 come from the traditional suckler strongholds of Galway and Mayo.

Some 3,500 in Galway signed up to the scheme – the highest of any county – with 2,774 receiving less than €2,000.

Payments

Galway has roughly 97,000 suckler cows – the highest of any county – yet just 22 Galway farmers received the top payment of between €10,000 and €11,600.

Conversely, Laois and Meath have two of the lowest suckler cow populations in the country, with just 3,900 and 14,500 respectively. However, the number of farmers in those counties who received the top bracket payment was double that of farmers in western counties, such as Galway and Mayo.