Payments worth €19.98 million will be issued this week to 23,132 participating farmers under the Beef Welfare Scheme 2024 (BWS).
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has said that the processing of such payments is a “key priority” and that payments will be visible in farmer’s bank account in the coming days.
The objective of the Beef Welfare Scheme 2024 is to further increase the economic efficiency of and enhance animal health and husbandry on suckler farms.
It supports farmers in meal feeding suckler calves before and after weaning, and in vaccinating against clostridial diseases and/or calf pneumonia.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue said: “I have increased targeted supports to the beef sector in successive years through this National Beef Welfare Programme and the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP).
“Farmers that participated in both schemes this year will receive a payment per cow and calf of €200.
“These measures support farm incomes, but also help to deliver on efficiency, environmental and animal welfare goals and with all these benefits in mind, I was very pleased to secure funding in Budget 2025 to increase this payment to €225 for next year.”
Beef Welfare Scheme
Meal feeding, which is a mandatory action under the scheme, will be paid at a rate of €35 per eligible calf with vaccination, which is an optional action, paid at a rate of €15 per eligible calf up to a maximum of 40 calves.
Participants must introduce meal feeding for a period of four weeks pre-weaning and two weeks post-weaning to reduce the stress on calves at weaning time.
Farmers who select and complete both scheme actions will be paid €50 per calf subject to a maximum overall payment of €2,000 (40 calves).
Farmers are reminded that if they have received a request to submit meal feeding and/or vaccination documentation, they should return them as soon as possible via agfood.ie.