National Sheep Welfare Scheme opened
THE opening of applications for a new National Sheep Welfare Scheme (NSWS), which will offer a financial incentive to sheep farmers for shearing or body condition scoring of ewes, or clostridial vaccination or plunge dipping of ewes, has been announced.
Details of the scheme were revealed by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue TD.
Operating in 2024 with a budget of €15m, participants in the NSWS will be required to complete two actions to receive the full payment of €8 per ewe. The scheme consists of four possible measures, equally applicable to upland and lowland flocks, and grouped into two categories as follows:
Category A – shearing or body condition scoring of ewes.
Category B – clostridial vaccination of ewes (or lambs if ewes are already vaccinated) or plunge dipping of ewes.
Farmers joining the NSWS must indicate at application stage which options they intend to carry out by selecting one from each category.
The maximum number of breeding ewes eligible for payment under the scheme will be determined by reference to the numbers declared for each participating flock in the sheep census returns from 2020 to 2023. Completed actions must be recorded on the Scheme Action Record Sheets, which will be provided by the department to participants.
When combined with payments under the Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS), sheep farmers will be eligible for a payment of €20/ewe, €8 stemming from the NSWS and €12/ ewe from SIS. On this, Minister McConalogue said: “I have fulfilled my undertaking to provide an additional payment for sheep farmers.
“This represents a doubling of the sheep payment from 2022 and is the highest payment ever provided to enhance animal health and welfare of our vitally important sheep sector.”
On the formal opening of the new scheme, the Minister said: “This scheme consists of a practical menu of health and welfare measures that are applicable to all types of sheep enterprises.
“It is designed to appeal to all sheep farmers regardless of their flock size or production system, including those not currently participating in the existing Sheep Improvement Scheme. The scheme sends a strong signal of my commitment to the sector and provides a valuable injection of support that will boost producer confidence in the future viability of sheep farming.”
Applications must be submitted by 23:59 on May 21, 2024. Farmers can submit an application themselves or engage the services of an approved FAS advisor, acting on their behalf, to submit the application through the department’s agfood.ie portal.
Meanwhile, IFA National Sheep Chair Adrian Gallagher said the opening of the €8/ewe National Sheep Welfare Scheme is an important step in ensuring the levels of targeted support for sheep farmers reflects the enormous challenges in the sector.
He said this scheme when combined with the SIS brings the total direct supports for sheep farmers to €20/ewe for this year which is much needed and must be built on.
Mr Gallagher said this new scheme has come about following an intensive campaign by IFA throughout last year highlighting the enormous income challenges on sheep farms.
The IFA National Sheep Chair said the scheme announced is a practical scheme, which minimises leakage of monies by rewarding good practice actions on farms and provides sheep farmers with the opportunity to receive payments on the maximum numbers of ewes by allowing the higher of the latest census figures or the average of the previous three years.
The scheme is based on two categories of actions, with two actions within each category all costed at €4/ewe with participants selecting one action from each category to receive the full €8 payment.
Adrian Gallagher said the choice of category 1 actions is shearing or Body Condition Scoring with the category two actions providing the option to select clostridial vaccination or plunge dipping.
He said these are all important management practices on farms which this scheme supports and it is important all sheep farmers take the opportunity to participate in the scheme which is open for applications until May 21.