First €1.148m tranche of €8m sheep grants launched

AGRICULTURE Minister Brendan Smith has opened the sheep fencing/mobile handling equipment scheme, and announced that the €8 million available will be paid out in tranches, the first €1.148m tranche running to January 31, 2011.

The scheme will then continue for grant applications received up to the end of 2013.

A standard grant rate of 40% will apply in all cases, up to maximum eligible investment of €10,000 – so the maximum grant is €4,000.

The following items are eligible for grant-aid – mobile specialised sheep spraying equipment, mobile sheep handling units (including footbaths), mobile weighing facilities, mobile rollover crates, mobile ‘batch’ footbaths, mobile penning up to 75 metres as part of a handling unit, and fencing (excluding gates).

Terms and conditions are on the www.agriculture.gov.ie website. The Department of Agriculture will apply the following selection criteria to determine the successful applications.

* Size of breeding flock, with priority per a marking sheet which is available on request from the department’s office in Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford, or on the department’s website.

* Percentage of production units derived from sheep.

* Proposed cost of the project (applicants will be preferred where proposed costs are lower than the department’s reference costs.

* Participation in a Sheep Ireland sheep breed improvement programme.

* Where any part of the holding is owned or leased in a less favoured area.

* Age (farmers between 18 and 35 prioritised).

IFA National Sheep Committee chairman James Murphy welcomed the grant package.

He said there is full flexibility in dividing the grant limit between handling facilities and fencing, and a farmer who carries out the work himself can submit his own labour costs at the standard rate. As well as sheep wire, two strands of barbed or electric fence on top are allowed in the fencing grant.

He expressed disappointment that the first tranche is limited to €1.148m.