Potential issues for farmers applying to the new Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS) including issues around genotyped/parentage verification require urgent attention, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has warned.
The IFA is also calling for the current deadline for applications to the scheme – December 19 – to be extended because of the “complexities” of the SIS application process.
The €20 million scheme will replace the current Sheep Welfare Scheme (SWS) in 2023 under the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
It will provide direct financial support of €12/breeding ewe to farmers specifically for “taking extra steps to improve the welfare” of their sheep.
The first year of the SIS will run from February 1 to December 31, 2023, on the basis of a one-year contract which will automatically renew unless the farmer or the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM) opts out.
The scheme is forecast to run for five years in total.
In order to qualify for the scheme farmers must meet certain criteria which the IFA said today (Friday, December 2) “requires amendment”.
Genotyped ram action requirements
The SIS is similar to the SWS but there is one key difference which relates to genotyped ram action requirements.
In the current stipulations set out by the DAFM for the SIS there is a requirement that farmers with a reference number greater than 150 will have to complete the genotyped ram action twice over the lifetime of the scheme.
It sets out that this must be once within the first three years of the scheme and once in any subsequent scheme year.
DAFM has detailed that farmers who apply to the SIS scheme must select the year or years in which they will carry out the genotyped ram action.
Kevin Comiskey, IFA sheep chair, said that the “requirement to nominate the years the genotyped/parentage verified in the scheme on the first year of application must not be a compliance requirement”.
He believes that once a farmer meets the requirement at any point within the term of the scheme it must be accepted as meeting the criteria.
Comiskey also said the current condition which sets out that each ram can only be claimed once over the lifetime of the scheme must be removed.
He said farmers regularly make decisions to replace rams for breeding purposes and if these were then sold on these rams should “be eligible to meet the scheme criteria for the next farmer”.
DNA sire-verified by Sheep Ireland
Comiskey also outlined that currently in relation to hill flocks a Scottish Blackface or a Cheviot ram must be DNA sire-verified by Sheep Ireland to be eligible for payment.
He believes all hill ram breeds should be included in this requirement and specific hill sheep types removed from the terms and conditions.
One of the key issues that the IFA has also identified with the SIS in its current form is that if scanning takes place on farms in January this process “will only be eligible for payment through the current scheme” (SWS).
“Applicants who choose the action as part of the new scheme will be penalised on their first-year payments because the action did not take place within the new scheme year,” the IFA warns.
It has called on DAFM to operate the new SIS along the lines of the SWS and avoid the prospect of penalising farmers in year one.
The farm body also wants any new entrants and existing farmers who do not apply to the scheme in the first year to be accepted into the scheme if they want to opt in at a later stage.
“It is extremely important that new entrants to the scheme be provided with a rolling reference period which would accurately reflect the level of activity on their farms while establishing their flocks throughout the duration of the scheme,” Comiskey added.