The Irish cattle and Sheep Farmers Association (ICSA) has called on the Department of Agriculture to assess the case of each farmer who received an “associated herd” letter under the BEAM scheme.
ICSA beef chair Edmund Graham said the requirements of the BEAM scheme have proved difficult for many to understand.
“I am urging Minister McConalogue and his Department officials to look carefully at each case before they deny payment to any farmer,” said Mr Graham.
“One thousand farmers have got letters and it is likely that almost half of them are potentially facing a BEAM penalty.”
“Some of these farmers – who thought they were on target to meet the requirements of the scheme – have now been left in an impossible situation.”
Mr Graham described the letters as unfair saying it was like throwing “a curveball in at the eleventh hour” and said it made it virtually impossible for farmers to rectify their stocking rates with less than a month to go.
“If this has been the case, why then have nitrates figures not been supplied all along for associated herds?
“At least then, farmers would have been in possession of all the relevant information and been able to act accordingly.”
LSL News.