'Substantial increase in funding' in new Beef Welfare Scheme for suckler farmers
Minister for agriculture Martin Heydon said: 'This year's scheme represents a substantial increase in funding compared to 2024. It offers farmers an opportunity to complete a wider range of straightforward measures, along with an increase in the upper limit on eligible animals.''
The Beef Welfare Scheme (BWS) will support farmers in meal-fed suckler calves at weaning and will allow them to take other voluntary actions to maximise their scheme payments.
The meal feeding action is mandatory, but farmers have the option of other actions to be conducted under the scheme, such as vaccinating calves against clostridial diseases and/or calf pneumonia, and carrying out faecal testing or forage testing where it suits their production systems.
Like previous years, all suckler farmers who have eligible calves born on their holdings between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, are eligible to apply for this scheme.
Applications close on September 24 and must be lodged online via the agfood website. Full terms and conditions can be found on the Department of Agriculture website under the 'Beef Welfare Scheme 2025'.
Suckler farmers can simultaneously participate in both the BWS and the five-year Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme. Farmers who take part in both will be eligible to earn up to €225 per cow/calf pair for the first 22 pairs in a herd.
Participants should retain copies of receipts for the meal and the vaccination and testing actions, if they also choose those options. They should maintain these records and submit them, on request, to the department to facilitate the processing of payments.
BWS participants who are also participating in the Parasite Control Consult under the Targeted Advisory Service on Animal Health and who wish to carry out the faecal egg count action under that scheme should not select the faecal count option in the 2025 BWS.
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