The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has issued a statement reminding farmers of the closing date for the Beef Environmental Efficiency Pilot – Sucklers (BEEP-S) and the Dairy Beef pilot.

The closing date for both is April 26, and applications for both must be submitted through agfood.ie.

BEEP-S

Just over 12,000 BEEP-S applications have been received by the department so far.

Minister McConalogue urged all eligible farmers to apply for the scheme, saying that the number of applications so far was a “strong start”.

Participants in BEEP-S may be eligible for up to €90 for the first 10 suckler cow/calf pairs per herd and up to €80 per pair thereafter, subject to an overall maximum of 100 pairs per herd, if all actions under the scheme are applied for and completed in full.

The scheme has a funding provisions this year of €40 million and, according to the department, targets the weaning efficiency of suckler cows and calves by measuring the live weight of the calf at weaning as a percentage of the cow’s live weight.

Similar to last year’s scheme, applicants to the scheme can also select from optional measures, including meal feeding or vaccination of weanlings; and faecal egg testing.

Dairy Beef pilot

The Dairy Beef Calf measure has a budget allocation of €5 million in 2021. The objective is, according to the department, to increase the economic and environmental efficiency of beef from the dairy herd and to facilitate integration of the dairy and beef sectors.

The core action involved in the pilot is weighing eligible calves for which there is a payment of €20 per calf, up to a maximum of 20 calves.

So far there has been over 1,900 applications for the pilot received by the department.

Commenting on the two schemes, Minister McConalogue said: “This €45 million package as a whole will support livestock farmers to improve the economic and environmental performance of their herds, while providing valuable income support for the sector.”

The terms and conditions of the the BEEP-S scheme can be found here.