Uptake still low for beef schemes among farmers
SUCKLER farmers in the 2013 Beef Data Programme should have received payments from last week, according to Agriculture Minister, Simon Coveney – however farm leaders that ‘red tape and low levels of payment’ had stymied interest in the scheme.
Last week, Minister Coveney said that the Beef Data Programme payments to 26,000 suckler farmers across the country had started to issue from last week, using €10 million in ‘unused funds’ from the Single Farm Payment Scheme (SPS).
The Minister also said that a further €10m allocation of unused SPS funding would be used for animals born during 2014 while another €23m was being provided in the 2014 Beef Genomics Scheme (BGS).
Minister Coveney said that the suckler herd was the’ seed bed’ for a quality beef industry involving more than 100,000 farm families, employing almost 8,000 people in processing, sales and marketing, and driving exports valued at approximately €1.8 billion per annum.
“The Beef Data Programme in conjunction with the Beef Genomics Scheme increases the breeding data available and harnesses technology in a way that improves efficiency and ultimately profitability at farm level.
“I am convinced that the combination of these and other measures will make a major contribution to the expansion of beef output and greater market penetration,” said Minister Coveney.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.