More than 8,000 farmers are facing clawbacks when the Beef Exceptional Aid Measure (BEAM) reference period finishes at the end of the year, according to the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA).
Brendan Golden, IFA’s livestock committee chair, criticised the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s (DAFM’s) handing of BEAM.
“It has been an administrative disaster from the outset by the Department of Agriculture,” he commented.
“The situation reached new lows in 2021, with monies taken back from farmers, errors in calculations sent to farmers and doing a U-turn on commitments for TB-restricted farms.”
Participants in the BEAM scheme had to reduce their bovine manure nitrogen (N) levels by 5 per cent – compared to an earlier reference period -within a one-year reduction period that ended on 30 June.
Covid-19 disruption meant that farmers were given the option of deferring the reduction period by six months until 31 December 2021.
The department confirmed in the summer that 18,707 farmers of the 34,000 had met the target by the 30 June deadline.
LSL News.