A number of amendments to the Sheep Improvement Scheme need to be made so that farmers can avoid unfair penalties, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has said.
IFA’s sheep committee chairman Kevin Comiskey has said that the €12/ewe payment, which can be drawn down by sheep farmers upon completing certain actions, must be built on to provide €30/ewe.
Comiskey also said that the scheme itself must be developed to allow all farmers that apply to receive the full payment.
Following a meeting with officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Comiskey welcomed the removal of the requirement for new entrants to hold a level six in education, labelling it a “reasonable update”.
However, he indicated that there is still some way to go and stated that the criteria around the genotyped ram action in the scheme “has the potential to severely impact a farmers’ ability to comply” with the scheme’s terms and conditions.
Farmers who chose this action had to indicate what year they will carry out the action during their application and according to Comiskey they “are effectively tied to that year”.
He said that this must be changed, to allow farmers carry out the action when it is suitable for them, and when there is a competitive supply of such rams in the marketplace.
“A high uptake on the action in year one, and [the requirement] to have the measure completed by year three, has raised huge concerns about the availability of suitable rams in this narrow window.
“Farmers applied with good intentions to breed sheep with higher genetic merits through this action, while also decreasing the risk of scrapie in their flocks,” he added.
According to the chairman, a lack of flexibility on this could create market disruption and interrupt a farmers’ ability to comply with the scheme overall.
“Once a farmer meets the requirement at any point within the five years of the scheme, it must be accepted as meeting the criteria,” he said.
He continued on to state that farmers who scan their sheep in January will find themselves ineligible for payment on this action in year one of the Sheep Improvement Scheme, as it counts this period from February 1, to December 31, 2023.
If the scheme allowed scanning in January 2024 for the first year of it, sheep farmers would have more options and many would avoid penalties for not completing an action, explained Comiskey.
The IFA chairman added that generational renewal is also an enormous challenge for the sector and the scheme must provide maximum flexibility for new entrants to offset this.
“New entrants to the sector must be provided with a rolling reference period which accurately reflects the level of activity on their farms while establishing their flocks throughout the duration of the scheme.
“All new entrants and existing farmers who do not apply in the first year must also be accepted into the scheme if it is decided to partake in subsequent years,” he concluded.