Farm Sustainability Payment
The Farm Sustainability Payment (FSP) will provide a balance between providing a safety net which will help a farm business withstand ‘shocks’ that are beyond its ability to manage effectively and encouraging farm businesses to be sustainable, efficient, competitive and to manage risk proactively.
The current Basic Payment Scheme will continue to operate in 2024 with existing land eligibility and cross compliance conditions. It is planned that a Farm Sustainability Transition Payment (FSTP) with some new eligibility conditions will be introduced in 2025. One of the eligibility requirements for FSTP in 2025 and the Farm Sustainability Payment (FSP) from 2026 onwards will be the need for eligible farm businesses to activate five entitlements on five hectares of eligible land. Any changes will be communicated well in advance. All land-based agriculture and horticulture businesses who meet the eligibility requirements will be able to apply.
What does this mean for me?
The Basic Payment Scheme will continue to operate in 2024. The Farm Sustainability Transition Payment will introduce some new eligibility conditions, as outlined in the Future Agricultural Policy Decisions for Northern Ireland, such as a minimum 5 ha claim size threshold. Further conditions will be introduced in 2026.
What do I need to do now?
No other action is required as current BPS payments will continue in 2024. Further information will be provided in due course.
Beef Sustainability Package
The Beef Sustainability Package will aim to help ensure the future viability of the beef sector, by helping the sector to keep pace with competitors, improve profitability, resilience and importantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It comprises two elements; a Beef Carbon Reduction Scheme and a Suckler Cow Scheme which together seek to improve productivity and reduce emissions from older non-breeding animals.
The Beef Carbon Reduction Scheme opened on 1 January 2024. The scheme incentivises farm businesses to reduce the slaughter ages of clean beef cattle over a four-year phased implementation period. A reduction in the number of older, non-breeding animals on farm will help improve overall farm productivity while at the same time reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the farm. CAFRE can assist farm businesses understand the necessary changes to management practices to finish cattle at the scheme target slaughter ages.
| Year of Scheme | Maximum Age at Slaughter |
|---|---|
| 1 | 30 months |
| 2 | 28 months |
| 3 | 27 months |
| 4 | 26 months |
Farm businesses slaughtering clean finished beef animals at or below the target age for the year of the Scheme, will receive a payment for each eligible animal slaughtered.
The payment rate per eligible animal will be £75. However, there will be a phased implementation of this payment rate in the first three months of 2024. The payment rate in January 2024 will be £20 per eligible animal, in February 2024 the payment rate will be £40 and in March 2024 the payment rate will be £60. From April 2024 onwards the payment rate will be £75 per eligible animal.
What does this mean for me?
The Beef Carbon Reduction Scheme is targeted at those farm businesses that finish beef cattle. It is limited to clean beef animals, born and bred in Northern Ireland and registered on NIFAIS which meet the maximum age at slaughter targets set out above. At present a minimum slaughter age has not been set but this will be kept under review. There will also be no differentiation in maximum slaughter ages for bulls, steers and heifers.
There is a Northern Ireland ceiling limit of 352,000 eligible animals to ensure that the scheme is production limiting. This means that payments will be capped at 352,000 animals, per year, in total for all eligible businesses. To prevent us from exceeding this ceiling we may proportionately reduce the number of animals each farm business will receive payments for in any one year of the scheme.
To be eligible for payment an animal must have been kept within a herd associated to that farm business (on NIFAIS) for at least 60 days (continuously) within the last 100 days before the slaughter date. This will ensure the payment is received by the farm business finishing the animal.
To be eligible for participation in the Beef Carbon Reduction Scheme, a farm business must have claimed for, and be eligible for payment of the Basic Payment Scheme (in 2024), or its replacement, the new Farm Sustainability Payment (from 2025 onwards).
What do I need to do now?
Consider adjustments necessary to meet maximum age at slaughter targets.
Check the agricultural press, DAERA website or social media channels regularly for details on upcoming training.
Eligible Farm Businesses must opt-in to the scheme to receive payment and can do so from 15 April 2024 via the DAERA website. The business only needs to opt-in once for BCR from 2024. If the business has opted-in they will receive a BCR payment each year thereafter provided they meet the eligibility conditions in that year. If you do not wish to complete the online BCR opt-in yourself, you can nominate another person (for example an Agent) to do so on your behalf.
The Suckler Cow Scheme is planned to open in early 2025 to incentivise farm businesses to reduce the age at first calving and/or calving interval of beef breed suckler cows over a four-year phased implementation period. A reduction in the age that heifers calve at and the calving interval of suckler cows will help improve overall farm productivity while at the same time reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the farm.
CAFRE will assist farm businesses to understand the necessary changes to management practices to reduce age at slaughter and to make the necessary changes to management practices to enable planning for calving heifers and cows at the specified Scheme targets.
Reduced age at first calving - payment will be made in respect of individual beef breed heifers that meet the age at first calving targets. The phased implementation is set out below:
| Year of Scheme | Maximum Age at First Calving |
|---|---|
| 1 | 34 months |
| 2 | 32 months |
| 3 | 30 months |
| 4 | 29 months |
Reduced calving interval - payment will be made in respect of individual beef breed cows that meet the calving interval targets. The phased implementation is set out below:
| Year of Scheme | Maximum Age at First Calving |
|---|---|
| 1 | 415 days |
| 2 | 405 days |
| 3 | 395 days |
| 4 | 385 days |
What does this mean for me?
The Suckler Cow Scheme is targeted at those farm businesses with suckler cows that are eligible for the Basic Payment Scheme/Farm Sustainability Payment. To be eligible for participation in the Suckler Cow Scheme, a farm business must be eligible for the new Farm Sustainability Payment (the replacement for Basic Payment Scheme).
Payment will be limited to those animals that give birth to live calves registered on NIFAIS and a quantitative limit will be set at individual farm level. Applicants joining mid scheme will have to meet the age of first calving or calving interval target at the year of entry. Other conditions / requirements for the scheme, including the payment rate are being finalised and will be published when available.
What do I need to do now?
Consider adjustments necessary to meet age at first calving and/or calving interval targets. Check the agricultural press, DAERA website or social media channels regularly for details on upcoming training.
Farming with Nature Package
The environmental challenges that need to be tackled in Northern Ireland are substantial. They range from deteriorating water and air quality, habitat and biodiversity loss and fragmentation, to the wide-ranging impacts of climate change. The agricultural sector is vital to our food security and underpins our rural communities, but some agricultural practices have detrimental impacts on our environment. There is, however, significant potential for farm businesses and land managers across all land types to make vital positive contributions to tackling these environmental impacts head on and to be properly recognised by society for doing so.
The Farming with Nature (FwN) Package aims to assist farm businesses and land managers across all land types to make substantial contributions to environmental improvements and sustainability. It will focus initially on reversing the trends in nature decline through maintaining, restoring, and creating habitats that are important for species diversity and improving connectivity between habitat areas.
Environmental payments will, as far as possible, seek to recognise and reward the public goods provided by farm businesses and land managers who improve environmental performance through the delivery of identified outcomes. This approach aims to encourage the environment to be seen as another on-farm enterprise and has the potential to become a profit centre within an overall sustainable farming model. It will also assist farm businesses and land managers to make an economic return on the environmental assets that they create and manage appropriately.
What does this mean for me?
Farming with Nature will be open to all land managers with 3 ha or more of eligible agricultural land who meet the scheme requirements. This includes land under conacre and common land. In order to participate you will need to comply with new Farm Sustainability Standards and participate in the Soil Nutrient Health Scheme.
What do I need to do now?
Continue to participate in the current Higher Environmental Farming Scheme still in operation. Check the agricultural press, DAERA website or social media channels regularly for further details and updates.
Soil Nutrient Health Scheme
The Soil Nutrient Health Scheme (SNHS) is a groundbreaking scheme and represents an investment of up to £45million in our farming sector. It will assist farm businesses in planning their farm nutrient management more effectively, and with the aim of reducing agricultural impacts on water quality. Participating in the scheme will provide farmers with important information to help manage soil nutrients and farm carbon. Crucially, participation in the SNHS is a condition for the receipt of the new Farm Sustainability Payment and for the Farming with Nature Package. This requires both registering for SNHS and completing training being offered by CAFRE. Failure to complete both elements may affect farmers’ future payments.
What do I need to do now?
Ensure that you register your fields into the SNHS once available in your area. SNHS on-line Nutrient Management training is now available from The College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE). You should complete this training as soon as possible after you receive your soil test results. Contact CAFRE at 02894426926.
For further information and how to join the Soil Nutrient Health Scheme visit Soil and Soil Nutrient Health Scheme - Frequently Asked Questions.
Ruminant Genetics Programme
The Ruminant Genetics Programme will help drive improvements in productivity and environmental performance in the ruminant livestock sectors. The programme will be delivered by DAERA, in partnership with the agri-food industry. The industry has established Sustainable Ruminant Genetics Ltd (SRG) which will assist DAERA in delivering several key functions including the promotion and marketing of this programme.
Genetic improvement will contribute significantly to achieving the target reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The first phase of this programme will provide farmers with the data and evidence to make better informed breeding decisions to advance genetic gain in dairy and beef animals. Training will also be provided by CAFRE to assist the industry to maximise the benefits of this Programme.
The sheep sector also wish to increase the rate of genetic improvement. However, at this stage, the best approach for achieving this has yet to be decided.
What does this mean for me?
Advancing genetic gain in ruminant animals will help you improve overall farm productivity, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, reduce pollution potential, and deliver long-term improved animal health and welfare. In the future you will be required to provide data necessary for the Ruminant Genetics Programme as an eligibility condition of future support payments.
What do I need to do now?
Nothing at this point. Further information will be provided in due course. Check the agricultural press, this webpage or social media channels regularly for further details and updates.
Farming for Carbon
Farming for Carbon will focus on actions to reduce carbon emissions and by association other emissions on farms and offset these emissions through carbon sequestration. The principle of encouraging Farming for Carbon as a Business Enterprise on farm will also be developed. DAERA will seek to ensure that as many of the new policy interventions as possible help to drive down the carbon footprint of the agricultural industry.
DAERA has collaborated with Defra to include a Northern Ireland element within the Defra Dairy Demonstrator Research Call which launched in November 2023. This Project will provide funding for researchers, and industry and their farm business clients to work together to formulate and test livestock concentrate diets which reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, ammonia emissions and phosphorus losses to the environment on commercial farms in Northern Ireland and across the UK. The Dairy Demonstrator Project will also potentially include non-dietary emission mitigations applicable to dairy farms ranging from animal productivity to genetics, manure, fertiliser and soil emissions and energy and fuel related mitigations. The successful bidder to this Research Call is expected to be announced imminently.
The greenhouse gas (GHG) methane accounts for 69% of the agriculture sector carbon emissions. The majority of agriculture methane emissions arise from the natural process of enteric fermentation in ruminant animals (cattle, sheep, goats). An increasing number of methane reducing feed products are becoming commercially available.
Surplus crude protein in livestock diets is excreted as nitrogenous compounds in urine and faeces. Urine and faeces combined in animal manures and slurries from housed environments give rise to emissions of ammonia and nitrous oxide, a GHG. Research indicates that scope exists to reduce crude protein levels in livestock concentrate diets which will lead to reduced ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions.
Excessive levels of phosphorus are the main cause of eutrophication in watercourses in Northern Ireland. Surplus phosphorus in livestock diets is excreted in urine and faeces. When the resulting slurry and manure from the housed environment is spread on agricultural land, a proportion of slurry and manure is subject to surface runoff to watercourses in wet weather conditions. Local research indicates that scope exists to reduce phosphorus levels in livestock concentrate diets which will lead to reduced phosphorus excretion and improved water quality.
The Dairy Demonstrator project will provide essential information to inform DAERA policy development on the future use of methane reducing feed additives and the impact of dietary changes on ammonia and phosphorous losses.
What does this mean for me?
It is intended that the Defra Dairy Demonstrator project to reduce emissions on commercial dairy farms in Northern Ireland will commence during April 2024.
What do I need to do now?
Nothing at this point. Further information will be provided in due course. Check the agricultural press, this webpage or social media channels regularly for further details and updates.
Section 19 (2) of the Climate Change (NI) Act 2022 requires the Department to develop a sectoral plan for agriculture which must contain proposals for carrying out fully funded carbon audits of farms to assess where performance improvements and savings can be made, and that as part of the carbon auditing process, carbon sequestration measures already being conducted by the sector should be calculated.
Carbon footprinting is a process that allows farm businesses to gain an understanding of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and will be comparable across different years and between businesses, provided that the same calculation method is used.
The objective of carbon footprinting is to efficiently capture data from all farms in Northern Ireland to identify where improvements in performance can be made. Data obtained from carbon benchmarking will be used to:
- Inform future policy development on carbon mitigation strategies;
- Update assumptions within the NI part of the UK GHG inventory; and,
- Inform farmers on where improvements in performance can be made.
What does this mean for me?
Completion of a Carbon footprint of your farm will help you identify where improvements in performance can be made. Knowledge transfer activities will be available for you to participate in to help deliver these improvements.
What do I need to do now?
Nothing at this point. Further information will be provided in due course. Check the agricultural press, this webpage or social media channels regularly for further details and updates.
Farming for the Generations
Northern Ireland agriculture relies on an industry structure with an ever-increasing age profile of farmers. Well-educated farmers have been shown to be more open to adopting advanced technology and environmentally friendly farming practices.
A reduction in the average age of farmers and accelerating the transition to those with relevant training and skills will provide a workforce which is more open to innovation and change.
What does this mean for me?
Management of a smooth and planned transition of the management and leadership responsibility and the legal inheritance of your farm business will support resilience and its long-term sustainability. The Farming for the Generations pilot scheme will encourage longer term planning for your farm business based on a three phased approach to include planning for succession, development of the successor/successors and maintaining support for both generations. The pilot scheme will also include knowledge and skills development and explore the provision of appropriate incentives.
What do I need to do now?
Nothing at this point. DAERA is in the process of appointing a Delivery Agent for the Farming for the Generations pilot scheme. Further information will be provided in due course with the pilot scheme expected to commence in Autumn 2024. Check the agricultural press, this webpage or social media channels regularly for further details and updates.
Knowledge and Innovation
Plans are progressing to launch a fresh suite of Knowledge Transfer Schemes to replace the Business Development Groups (BDG) and Farm Family Key Skills (FFKS) schemes, which have recently come to an end. These will build on the success of the BDG and FFKS using proven methods including newsletters and videos, online and face-to-face training and peer-to-peer learning groups to equip farmers to address today’s challenges and develop their businesses in a sustainable way. It is planned that these Schemes will be introduced during 2024.
Alongside the Knowledge Transfer Schemes for farmers, a new innovative package of training and support is planned for agri professionals. This will include seminars and focused training to help them explore the implications of the new Farm Support and Development Programme in their dealings with farmers. The package will be designed to help these professionals to better assist their farming clients through a period of change.
Innovation
Schemes to encourage innovation are also being refreshed, and these will be phased in. It is planned to include a new network of Demonstration Farms, International Farm Visits and Innovation Partnerships.
The aim of these Schemes will be to encourage uptake of innovations on farm by shortening the chain from research to adoption. The first of these new schemes will be Innovation Partnerships, planned to launch at the end of 2024, which will build on the success of the successful pilot European Innovation Partnership (EIP) Scheme when seven operational groups successfully delivered their projects in 2023. For further information on these projects visit Approved EIP Projects - CAFRE. The aim of this scheme is for farmers to form links with researchers, academics, and industry experts to tackle on-farm problems or exploit opportunities.
What do I need to do now?
These new schemes will be launched in the coming months. Check the agricultural press, this webpage or social media channels regularly for further details and updates and consider enrolling.
Horticulture
It is currently planned that the horticulture sector will have a bespoke range of support measures. The Horticulture Sector Growth Support Scheme will aim to commence in Autumn 2024 with the establishment of Subsector Growth Groups, along with a Growers Academy. An Innovation Support Scheme will aim to commence in Autumn 2025.
What does this mean for me?
Subsector Growth Groups will aim to increase productivity by providing specialist agronomy and business development professional advice to participants encouraging them to share information and explore market opportunities collectively. This will help them develop business specific growth plans to meet growth targets over a four-year implementation period.
A Growers Academy will provide the opportunity for young and new growers to attend professional development training and activities and events that will allow them to develop the knowledge and skills which they require to start a horticulture enterprise or increase their horticulture businesses’ profitability and sustainability.
An Innovation Support Scheme will encourage growers with viable ideas to invest in new / novel systems, technology, and crops.
What do I need to do now?
Nothing at this point. Further information on the launch date and Scheme targets will be provided in due course. Check the agricultural press, this page or social media channels early next year for further details relating to the Scheme launch.
Capital Investment Measure
The Capital Investment Schemes aim to help farm businesses improve both their environmental performance and business efficiency. In particular, support will be focused on assisting the industry to meet net zero targets to incentivise investment in carbon reduction technology and to invest in equipment to support low carbon farming. This will build on information provided to farm businesses through the Soil Nutrient Health Scheme and Carbon Footprinting Project.
There are a number of challenges facing the industry, both in terms of farm productivity and environmental performance. The Capital Investment Scheme will aim to reduce the environmental impact of primary production sectors, through adoption of precision technology and equipment to reduce ammonia emissions, carbon emissions, and nutrient loss. In addition, it will seek to increase the resilience of farm businesses through increased efficiency, to help deal with the volatility of input costs and labour availability.
What does this mean for me?
The Capital Investment Scheme will provide your farm business with opportunities to improve performance, resilience, efficiency and sustainability by providing support for capital investment with the most potential to deliver against scheme objectives.
What do I need to do now?
Nothing at this point. Further information will be provided in due course.
Supply Chain Measure
Supply Chain Schemes aim to assist in improving collaboration between producers and growers within the supply chain, encouraging them to innovate, problem-solve and value-add beyond what they can achieve in isolation.
From mid-2025, a range of supply chain support schemes will be provided for new and existing groups to pursue opportunities for growth, develop products, processes and systems, as well as to address longer-term strategic supply chain challenges affecting the agri-food sector.
What does this mean for me?
As this is a collaborative measure, it is unlikely to affect individual producer businesses directly. However, DAERA would strongly encourage you to actively participate when the opportunity arises.
What do I need to do now?
Nothing at this point. Further details will be provided in due course.