A global health pandemic, mass political resignations and high rainfall in recent weeks – 2020 seems to be the year that keeps on giving – for the wrong reasons, unfortunately, writes By Keith Fahy, B&T drystock adviser, Teagasc, Galway/Clare.
However, it is not all doom and gloom, eligible beef farmers can now apply for the new Beef Finishing Payment Scheme and fodder supplies seem to be significant on-farm at present.
Beef Finisher Payment (BFP):
€100 per animal is available under the new Beef Finishing Payment which comprises of €50 million and was funding received on the back of the losses incurred by beef finishers that were impacted by the economic effect of the Covid–19 pandemic.
Beef finishers that slaughtered cattle between the dates of 01/02/2020 and the 12/06/2020 are eligible to apply for €100 euro per animal slaughtered during this period.
The payment is up to 100 eligible animals and farmers can apply for the payment up until the 09/09/2020.
The application can be done online by logging onto your individual Ag Food account and clicking into the ‘Exceptional Aid Measure’ tab and then selecting the ‘Beef Finisher Payment’ tab or alternatively, you can contact your Teagasc/agricultural advisor.
Payment eligibility
There are a number of factors in which farmers must be aware of when applying.
The payment is only applicable to bovines slaughtered between the 01/02/2020 and 12/06/2020 and all animals killed must have been over 8 months at slaughter and be resident on the qualifying herd for at least 30 days prior to slaughter.
Farmers applying must have submitted a BPS application in 2020 and must also either be a member of the Bord Bia Quality assurance scheme or be willing to have signed up before September 30th, 2020.
Any farmer that sold finishing stock in marts around the said timeframe should also check to see if any of their stock may qualify for the payment.
I spoke to a farmer recently who had sold dry suckler cows at the mart but when he checked online, it turned out that he was eligible to apply for these as they must have been sent to factory shortly after he sold them in the mart.
