A new silage project, which pays farmers up to € 1,000 to grow silage, will begin within a few days.
The € 56 million feed support scheme, announced by the Minister of Agriculture in early May, has been approved by the government and will allow farmers or their advisors to apply online within a few days.
Applicants will be available until 22 August and farmers will receive payments of up to € 1,000 in November. All controls, compliance, and on-the-spot inspections have been carried out, Agriculture Minister Charlie McConnallogue announced today. He also promised that all payments would be made by the end of the year.
This plan encourages farmers, especially dry food farmers, to grow more feed (silage and / or hay) for the coming winter to prevent animal welfare problems in the coming winters and springs. I am aiming for it.
This scheme is open to grassland farmers, but not available to milk suppliers. Land classified as Category 1 land under the Cultivated Land and Nature Constrained Area (ANC) scheme is not eligible for assistance.
The maximum area that can be paid under the scheme is 10ha and the potential maximum payment is € 1,000.
If the scheme is oversubscribed, the payment rate per hectare will be less than € 100 / ha. In this scenario, the department either lowers the payment rate for all hectares or maintains a rate of € 100 / ha for the first few hectares and reduces it for the second hectares.
“We hope that this plan will be developed as an urgent issue and will have strong support from farmers,” said Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue.
“I urge qualified farmers to apply on time and ensure that the scheme’s terms of use, in particular the area entered for the scheme, must be reduced and preserved by September 5th. ..
According to a recent study by Teagasc, half of all dried fish farmers do not spray any chemical nitrogen fertilizer on the silage ground.
This latest support came after the € 12 million cultivation incentive scheme was launched in March, encouraging the cultivation of cultivated crops, red clover and multiple species of cut turf.
Two separate support packages worth € 20 million have been deployed for the pig sector and a target package worth around € 3 million has been introduced for the horticulture and vegetable sector.
