The department must honour full payment for all weighed calves, says ICSA
The Department of Agriculture are now only paying for 31 calves weighed under the NDBWS.
The lowering of the number of calves paid for under the National Dairy Beef Weighing Scheme (NDBWS) has been called outrageous by the Irish Cattle and Sheep Association (ICSA).
ICSA president Sean McNamara has described the drop from the original 50 calves paid for under the NDBWS, like farmers were led to believe, to the now 31 calves farmers can be expected to be paid for as outrageous.
“The €4 million allocated to the scheme would have paid for 200,000 calves. However, after more than 305,000 calves were weighed by the 1 November deadline, farmers are being told that up to 40% of their work will go unpaid after the department slashed the number of calves farmers will be paid for.
"They will now receive a payment for a maximum of 31 calves instead of 50. That is completely unacceptable,” he said.
Mr McNamara said ICSA is calling on minister Heydon to immediately increase the budget so that all calves weighed and submitted by the deadline are paid in full.
Mr McNamara voiced his concerns as this cut to the NDBWS comes after cuts to both the Beef and Sheep Welfare Schemes have been made.
Payment rates for 2025 are being cut from €75/calf to €67/calf in the Beef Welfare Scheme, and from €13/ewe to €11.50/ewe in the Sheep Welfare Scheme, again because those schemes were oversubscribed.
"It is ridiculous to expect farmers to budget on a scheme only to get hit with a payment 40% lower than expected. We cannot have a situation where the more farmers engage, the more the department cuts.”
Concluding, Mr McNamara said: “All scheme payment rates should be moving up, not down, especially when costs are rising, and inflation continues to be a big factor. Repeated short-changing leaves a bad taste and breeds disillusionment amongst farmers trying to do their best. This cannot continue.”
