2011 reference year for stocking rates

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney has confirmed that 2011 was the reference year for stocking rates in the re-designed disadvantaged areas scheme.

“If one was below the threshold last year, one’s payment will be removed unless one appeals and gets it back,” he told Dáil Eireann.

“This is not about telling farmers that if they do not increase their stocking rate they will not receive a payment, because farmers would simply increase their stocking rates. This is about making a calculation of the farmers who actively farmed last year and measuring it on the basis of stocking density and the length of time they kept those animals, and whether they were horses, cattle or sheep.”