Payments to over 32,000 suckler cow farmers under the 2014 Beef Data Programme will start this week, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney announced yesterday.

If you signed up for the Beef Data Programme (BDP) in 2013, the necessary information must be completed throughout the first half of this year for calves born from August 2013 until the end of December, if they are to become eligible for payment.

The estimate of 550,000 calves benefiting from the new Beef Genomics Scheme (BGS) is based on experience of the average take-up by farmers of similar schemes, such as the suckler-cow welfare scheme.

Applications will open in February for the €23m Beef Genomics Scheme announced by Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney on Tuesday.