SHARING OPTIONS:
“The reality is that not only are farmers struggling with the complexity of this requirement, but neither Teagasc nor the Department have the tools to advise farmers of where they stand in a timely and accurate fashion.”
Measures that farmers could undertake in lieu of a 5% nitrogen reduction under the Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) have been proposed by the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association (ICSA).
ICSA beef chair Edmund Graham has called for farmers who cannot meet the reduction to be given the option of using trailing shoe slurry spreading technology and/or protected urea as an alternative.
Farmers who currently do not meet the organic nitrogen reduction condition of the Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) risk losing as much as €40m in payments, the
Irish Farmers Journal understands.
Irish Farmers Journal, some 14,072 BEAM participants are currently meeting the 5% requirement, with a further 967 farmers reporting a reduction of between 4% and 5%.
The remaining farmers, 19,373 of them, have until 30 June 2021 to meet the scheme requirements and there is concern that some farmers will have to pay back money due to misssing targets.
The €40m at risk represents more than half of the €77.72m paid out to 33,445 farmers under the measure.