Minister Reassures All Suckler Farmers That They Are Eligible for Beef Welfare Scheme

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue has reassured all suckler farmers that eligible cows that produced an eligible calf during the relevant period are entitled to apply for this year’s beef welfare scheme. The scheme which was announced by the Minister earlier this week will open in August.  

Speaking about the Beef Welfare Scheme the Minister said:  

“I was delighted to recently announce €20m, which I secured in budget 2024, to run a new beef welfare scheme for this year. I am particularly glad that once again I am delivering on my €200 per suckler cow and calf commitment to farmers. 

“I want to assure everyone that all suckler farmers can apply for the scheme where they have calves born between 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. This means they are fully eligible to draw down both the €35 for meal feeding and the €15 for the vaccination measure once they have carried out the actions. Keeping the scheme to just two measures means that it is as efficient as it possibly can be for all participants.” 

“Even in the small number of cases where calves born last autumn have now been sold on as weanlings, farmers remain fully eligible for the scheme. They can apply for payment for both actions where both were completed before the weanlings were sold. In the cases where calves were not vaccinated, they will not qualify for the €15 but the farmer remains eligible for the meal feeding payment which makes up €35 of the €50 payment per animal. This follows the same pattern as previous schemes including last year’s Beef Welfare Scheme. Where the scheme does differ however is that I have made an adjustment so that there is no penalty applied to the meal feeding in the event of a farmer not applying for the second measure.” 

“I would encourage all sucker farmers to apply and avail of the funding as it is an important income support for the sector.”