Farmers who have applied to the Beef Environmental Efficiency Pilot (BEEP) scheme can begin weighing cows and calves from today (Friday, March 8).

Under the terms of the scheme, Farmers will have until November 1 to weigh their unweaned calves and their dams; this data is then submitted to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, in return for a €40 payment per cow-calf pairing; payments will be made throughout the month of December.

Only unweaned calves that were born between July 1 2018 and June 30 2019 will be eligible for the scheme, and their weights must be submitted along with the weight of their dams.

Applicants can only use scales that are provided for rental by an approved field service agent, or scales that are registered with the department if they are your own or borrowed from elsewhere.

The full set of terms and conditions for the scheme, including how to register your own scales, can be seen here.

Last week, the department revealed the number of farmers who had applied for the scheme.

In total, 18,593 applications were made – 10,410 online and 8,183 by paper forms sent via An Post.

The department also supplied a county-by-county breakdown of the applications.

The figures show that Co. Galway provided the most applicants; 2,015 from the county put their names forward for the scheme.

Co. Mayo had the second highest number of applicants, at 1,739, followed by Co. Clare at 1,453; counties Cork and Roscommon were the only other areas to have an uptake in four digits.

The figures for counties Galway and Roscommon contributed to the 6,254 applicants from Connacht as a whole, the province with the highest level of uptake.