Farmers urged to apply for BEEP-S

WEST of Ireland farmers have been strongly advised to apply for the €90 per cow BEEP-S scheme which could provide them with a significant cash injection of over €2,000.

Farmers who join and meet the requirements of BEEP-S – the Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme-Suckler – can qualify for a payment of €90 per cow for the first 10 and €80 per cow on the remainder up to a maximum of 100.

This would mean that a ‘typical’ West of Ireland part-time suckler farmer with 25 cows would be entitled to a payment of €2,100 (10 X €90 = €900 +15 X 80 = €1,200).

According to IFA National Livestock Chairman Brendan Golden, the mandatory aspect of the scheme involves weighing the cow and calf – worth €50.

An additional €30 will be paid for an animal welfare action (pre-weaning meal feeding or vaccination) with a further €10 available for a faecal egg-testing programme.

Connacht IFA Chair, Pat Murphy, urged all suckler farmer to apply for the scheme. “For a lot of farmers, it will mean that there’s an extra €2,000 to be picked up – this is money that farmers on very tight incomes just cannot leave behind,” he said.

He also said that farmers shouldn’t get ‘hung up’ about the trouble involved in weighing the animals. “Thinking about that can nearly as bad as doing it: scales can be hired at reasonable daily rates to complete this part of the programme, which is mandatory,” he added.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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