Only dairy herds of less than 40 cows can access BEAM beef scheme

Only dairy herds of less than 40 dairy cows will have access to the new €100 million Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM).

When Agriculture Minister Michael Creed announced details of BEAM, today, he said smaller dairy farms typically have a mixed farming enterprise, with a lower than average dairy farm income, and a beef enterprise accounting for a higher proportion of total farm income.

BEAM will be funded by a combination of EU exceptional aid and Exchequer support,to compensate for difficult circumstances that Irish beef farmers have faced due to market volatility and uncertainty arising out of Brexit.

The Minister said, “The availability of this EU and Exchequer support, together with the Beef Environmental Efficiency Pilot (BEEP) introduced earlier this year, provides an injection of up to €120m in aid for the beef sector in 2019.”

Ireland must notify the EU Commission by July 31 of the measures to be taken. The Minister said the details he announced are designed to meet the requirements set out by the Commission.

Each participant must:

- be a member of a Bord Bia Quality Assurance Scheme or a DAFM environmental scheme; and must reduce production of bovine livestock manure nitrogen (total figure) per herd by 5% for a target period (July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021) compared to a reference period (July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019).

- Aid will be paid on adult cattle slaughtered between September 24 , 2018, and May 12 , 2019, at €100 per animal, subject to a maximum of 100 finished animals per herd.

- Aid will also be paid on suckler cows that calved in 2018, at a rate of €40 per animal subject to a maximum of 40 sucklers per herd.

Animals controlled by slaughtering establishments, and dealer/agent herds, are not eligible for this financial aid.

- If BEAM is oversubscribed, payment rates may be subject to minor revision.

A projection by the Department of Agriculture envisages that the BEAM payment might average €1,423 across 71,529 herds.

Payment of up to €10,000 to 37,742 finisher herds, and up to €1,600 for 55,651 suckler-weanling herds could be accommodated within the €100m ceiling.