Farmers are being reminded that the closing date by which they can opt to change their reduction period under the Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) scheme is next Monday (June 21).
Due to the disruption caused by Covid-19, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine gave participants in BEAM the opportunity to change their reduction period to January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021.
During the reduction period, participants must reduce the amount of livestock manure nitrogen produced on their holding by 5%, compared to a ‘reference period’ of July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019.
The original reduction period was July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. The option to change this was opened on March 19.
Farmers who are confident of meeting the 5% reduction target within the original reduction period do not have to take the option. The original reduction period will apply to those farmers.
However, one farm organisation is calling for all farmers to avail of the new reduction dates regardless of whether they will meet the original target or not, in order “to maintain maximum flexibility in meeting the scheme conditions”.
Brendan Golden, the national livestock chairperson for the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), said today (Friday, June 18): “Most importantly, farmers who apply for the extension but meet the requirements by the end of June will not be affected and can accept their original reduction period.”
In this case, according to Golden, the farmer in question “will be deemed by the department to have met their obligations in the scheme”.
“There are no downsides to applying for the new reference period,” he argued.
“I am urging farmers to use this flexibility to their advantage by applying before the deadline of next Monday,” Golden concluded.
Farmers wishing to apply to defer their dates can do so via agfood.ie