Farmers have just hours left to submit an application to the second tranche of the Beef Data and Genomics Programme or BDGP2.
The deadline for applications is today, May 8, and the scheme is expected to facilitate 5,000 new entrants.
It is understood that the department has already received a large number of applications and the feedback from farmers has been positive.
BDGP2 will be run in a similar manner to BDGP1 and successful applicants can expect payments to be the same.
This will mean that a payment of €142.50/ha will be issued for the first 6.66 payable hectares under the scheme.
Following this, a €120 payment will be issued per payable hectare after that.
To be eligible for payment, successful applicants need to complete six actions or requirements. However, there will be a number of small changes to the training and carbon navigator requirements. Read the six actions here
Payments under BDGP1
More than 24,000 farmers were paid €44m in 2015 and a further €39m was paid out under the 2016 scheme to almost 21,000 farmers.
In total, some 530,000 Irish cows are enrolled in the first tranche of the scheme. These cows are owned by 24,500 suckler farmers.