A Tyrone beef and sheep farmer who has been involved in a dispute with DAERA going back to 2015 has received the largest Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payout made by the Department in recent years.

The latest list of farm and rural development scheme payments published by DEFRA shows that Robert James McFarland, who farms with his parents Alan and Diane at Ballagh Road in Clogher, received a BPS lump sum of £596,650 in the 2024 scheme year.

That 2024 scheme year relates to the EU financial period of 16 October 2023 to 15 October 2024, so for most NI farmers it is the BPS money received in September 2023.

In the McFarland case, it is understood that there has been a dispute around monies due after DAERA encouraged the family to merge farm businesses back in 2015. The case is not yet fully resolved.

As shown in Table 1, behind Robert McFarland in the top 10 list is the executor for the estate of Co Antrim farmer Robert Workman, with a BPS payout of £200,575.

In the previous EU financial year, Mr Workman had received just over £100,000 in BPS money.

The remaining eight farms on the list have all featured before, with seven at the annual BPS limit of £190,000, which was set by DAERA in 2021.

Counties

Four of the six counties in NI are represented in the top 10 list. The highest recipient from Co Armagh is Minehill Farm Ltd down in 16th position with a payment of £163,298.

The top recipient in Co Fermanagh is Eugene McCaffrey and sons, with a payment of £158,162, which places the farm 17th on the NI list.

In total, 23,911 farmers in NI received BPS money in 2023-2024, with the average per farm at £12,677. There are 114 farm businesses that received a payment of over £100,000, with 760 getting over £50,000 and 3,014 receiving over £25,000.

Future payment

Looking ahead, it is likely there will be significant changes in the top 10 list when it is published in 2026 due to the impact of the Beef Carbon Reduction (BCR) scheme.

In 2024-2025, all BPS claimants saw their payments cut by 9% to fund the BCR scheme, with this money redirected towards beef finishers.

In the first year of that scheme, the top claimant got over £230,000, with 11 farm businesses receiving over £100,000. These figures should be incorporated into the next DEFRA list.

Beyond that, there is also the possibility that DAERA will apply a new limit to area payments from 2026, with a progressive cap, starting at £60,000, applying to the new Farm Sustainability Payment (FSP) which replaces BPS.

In 2026, it would effectively mean this payment is limited to £153,000, dropping to £116,000 in 2027 and beyond. There is no upper limit in beef schemes.

Given that funding is being redirected into beef schemes and potentially, Farming with Nature, it is not clear how many farm businesses will actually be impacted by a cap on the FSP.