BEAM: What you need to know about the proposed scheme

Details on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s proposed Beef Emergency Aid Measure (BEAM) have been released, including eligibility requirements and conditions.

Under the proposed scheme, discussed by the department with representatives from a number of farmer organisations yesterday, Thursday, July 11, eligibility criteria was discussed.

The draft scheme was put forward to utilise the €100 million beef fund agreed by the European Commission and the Irish Government to support Irish beef farmers.

Also Read: Draft scheme put forward to utilise €100 million beef fund

The measure will provide payment rates of €100/head for beef finishers and €40/head for suckler farmers.

Finishers can apply for a maximum of 100 animals per applicant; while the max-out limit for sucklers will be 40 animals.

For animals to be eligible for the scheme, one of two key criteria options must be met:

Bovine animals older than 12 months-of-age set to slaughter in a reference period from the week commencing September 24, 2018, to the week commencing May 6, 2019; or
Suckler cows with progeny born in the 2018 calendar year.

Dairy herds will not be eligible; while dealer or agent herds are also deemed ineligible.

To be eligible, applicant farmers must be in either an environmental scheme or the Bord Bia Quality Assurance scheme.

In addition, eligibility requirements include: a valid herd number with eligible bovine animals; and a Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) application submitted in 2018.

To be accepted in the scheme, applicant farmers must commit to reducing the level of bovine livestock manure nitrogen per farm by 5%.

This will be measured by the difference between a 12-month reference period and a target period.

For example, a reference period could be from July 2018 to June 2019. The subsequent target period would be from July 2020 to June 2021.