Calf Investment Scheme open for applications
Department opens Calf Investment Scheme, with €1.5m available for on-farm investment
THE Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed TD announced last week that the Calf Investment Scheme (CIS) was open for applications.
This scheme is a new initiative from the Department of Agriculture, with funding of €1.5m available for on-farm investment for a range of items relating to calf-rearing. These include calf feeders, computerised calf feeders and milk carts with mixers.
Nationally there are now over 1.5million dairy cows, so with the increasing calf numbers, reducing the time and workload involved in rearing these calves will be very important.
The Minister commented that “this is a new scheme which will add significant capacity on Irish farms for the rearing of calves and will further enhance the health and welfare credentials of Irish agriculture.”
He also urged farmers to consider investing in these measures, and he hopes to see a high level of uptake under this initiative.
There is a range of additional investment items available for selection in addition to calf feeders. A full list of eligible items is available on the Departments website.
Grant aid in the scheme is available at 40 per cent of the VAT-exclusive cost of approved items. There is a minimum spend of €1,000 required to be eligible for grant aid up to a maximum investment of €7,500. So, for example, a farmer who invests €7,500 on a computerised calf feeding system will be eligible for grant aid of 40 per cent of the cost (i.e. €7,500 at 40 per cent equals €3,000).
The maximum grant available is €3,000. Any investment over €7,500 will be at the farmer’s own expense.
The scheme is open for applications until January 28.
The application process is straight-forward, with a threepage application form that will be emailed directly to the Department on a designated email address, which is cis@ agriculture.gov.ie
The scheme is open to farmers who are aged 18 or over and who hold a Department bovine herd number and, prior to submitting the CIS application, have a minimum of five hectares of eligible land owned and/or leased or rented which have been declared under the Basic Payment Scheme or equivalent in 2019.
Applications received after January 28, 2020, will be deemed invalid and will not be considered for inclusion in CIS.
Only one application can be submitted per holding so, for example, where there is a registered farm partnership with two herd numbers linked, only one application can be submitted.
The scheme is open to all herd identifiers, whether it is a sole herd number, a joint herd number, registered farm partnership or a limited company.
However, all parties linked to the herd number must be in agreement with the application, and the application must be submitted under the primary identifier.
Applicants will not be able to amend application details following submission.
For this reason, applicants are advised to ensure that the application is completed fully and accurately prior to submission.
Applications that are not fully completed at time of submission will be deemed ineligible and will be rejected.
Similar to the TAMS scheme, applications will be examined for eligibility before an approval letter and payment claim form will issue.
Any expenditure spent before the date of submission of an application is ineligible, and no grant aid will be paid on items purchased before approval is given to the applicant.
In the event of the scheme being oversubscribed, the payment due to each applicant may be subjected to a linear reduction.
If an applicant has been approved for grant aid but the investments have not been purchased by the claim deadline of June 30, 2020, the approval will be automatically deemed to be withdrawn.
Therefore any farmer who has been or is thinking about upgrading their calf-rearing facilities should consider applying to the CIS.
If the investment is going to reduce the labour input on the farm, or result in healthier calves leaving the farm, then it will be a worthwhile investment.