The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) has launched a Beef Emergency Aid Measure (BEAM) calculator for its HerdPlus platform.
Announcing the online tool this morning (Wednesday, December 2), the federation explained: “The BEAM calculator is designed to allow BEAM applicants to project forward their overall organic nitrogen produced from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021.
“Users can enter the stock numbers which they intend to have on farm from now until June 30, 2021.
The BEAM calculator can then indicate whether you are meeting the required 5% BEAM scheme organic nitrogen reduction or not.
The calculator allows stock numbers to be adjusted until the projected overall organic nitrogen target is met, the federation says.
This will then help the herdowner identify if numbers must be reduced and the categories of animals where any reductions must be made, it was added.
The calculator displays the average stock numbers on farm from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2019, which is the BEAM scheme reference period, ICBF says.
This allows farmers and advisers to look back at the reference period and then project forward stock numbers using the BEAM calculator to meet the 5% stocking reduction for the end of June 2021.
Before using the calculator, farmer and advisers should refer to the online BEAM application submitted to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for their exact requirements to meet 5% stocking rate deduction.
The BEAM calculator will be available online under the “Applications” menu on the desktop version of the platform.