The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has now approved 2,225 (59%) applications made by farmers in tranche 3 of the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes (TAMS 3).

The latest statistics, published by the department, show that officials gave an additional 305 the green light last week.

1,301 of the 3,799 tranche 3 applications are still being processed, a further 187 have been rejected and 86 were withdrawn to date.

The following table provides the latest update on tranche 3 applications for the 10 schemes contained in TAMS 3:

The latest data also shows that 125 out of 8,203 applications made under tranche 1 are still "in progress"

7,229 applications have been approved in this round, while 673 were rejected and 176 withdrawn.

The department said that its staff are still working on 492 applications made by farmers under tranche 2 of TAMS 3.

7,817 of the 9,110 applications made in this tranche have been approved, 595 rejected and 206 withdrawn.

Meanwhile, farmers are reminded that the closing date for tranche 4 applications is this Friday, September 6.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has already indicated that tranche 5 of the scheme will close for applications on Friday, December 6.

TAMS provides grants to farmers to build and/or improve a specified range of farm buildings and equipment on their holding.

The new version of the scheme includes ten measures covering dairy, farm safety, slurry storage, low emission slurry spreading (LESS), farm safety, organics, solar PV, tillage, pig and poultry.

There are also separate capital investment schemes for women and young farmers.