DAERA is currently planning for the new Suckler Cow Scheme to have a payment rate of £100/head, the Irish Farmers Journal understands.

The department is reluctant to confirm a payment rate for the new headage scheme until a budget for farm support beyond March 2025 is set by the UK government.

A spokesperson for DAERA said the Suckler Cow Scheme, which is due to open in January 2025, remains “under development”.

However, several sources have confirmed that the current working assumption within DAERA is that a payment of £100/head will be available for cows and heifers that meet scheme criteria.

It is also understood that plans for a limit on the number of claims that individual farmers can make under the Suckler Cow Scheme have been scrapped.

Initially, DAERA had proposed to assign each farm a quota, based on historic livestock numbers.

The new plan is to have no upper limit on individual claims under the scheme, although an overall cap will be set at the NI regional level.

Again, final details are not available, but the current working assumption within DAERA is that an overall limit of claims for 222,000 cows and heifers will be set each year.

It seems unlikely that the regional limit will be surpassed, as it would require almost 95% of the NI suckler herd to meet the required calving targets under the scheme.

Eligibility criteria

The eligibility criteria for both cows and heifers has not changed, although Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir has said it will be kept under review as the scheme is rolled out.

The current criteria is that mature cows will need to have a calving interval of 415 days to be eligible for payment in 2025, with this falling each year to reach 385 days in 2028.

For heifers, age of first calving needs to be 34 months or less in the first year of the scheme, falling to 29 months in 2028.

Clarity on the amount of funding that will be available from the UK government for farm support schemes is not expected before the Autumn Budget on 30 October.

“Any decision to introduce new policies or programmes as part of the Farm Support and Development Programme, will be in the context of budget availability within the next earmarked farm support funding envelope,” a DAERA spokesperson said.