With the launch of the new National Beef Welfare Scheme by the Department of Agriculture Food & the Marine, which replaces Beep-S, on this week’s Beef Edge podcast, Catherine Egan is joined by Teagasc Beef specialist Aidan Murray to get all the details.

The new scheme which is funded by the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR) is a one year programme and it essentially replaces the old BEEP-S scheme where applicants had to weigh the unweaned cow and calf, with the option of either meal feed pre & post weaning or vaccinate calves and optional faecal sampling. 

For the new scheme the weighing component no longer features as it now part of the Suckler Cow Efficiency Programme (SCEP) while the faecal sampling and the calf vaccination have also been dropped.

There are no optional components this time around, both required measures are mandatory:

1. IBR Testing - Each participant must commit to participate in the IBR testing action managed by ICBF on behalf of DAFM. They are required to engage a PVP who will blood sample and test up to twenty bovine animals per herd, ideally 9 months old (if feasible) or above if present in the herd, or all ages if there is less than 20 in the herd for IBR gE antibodies.

Where a herd has twenty or more bovines, a minimum of twenty must be tested. Where a

herd has less than twenty bovines, ALL must be tested.

No. of bovines tested Payment per herd

Between 2 to 6 animals (inclusive)​€120

Between 7 to 10 animals (inclusive) ​€180

Between 11 to 15 animals (inclusive)​€250

Between 16 to 20 animals (inclusive) ​€300

2. Meal Feeding – Participants must introduce meal feeding for a period of 4 weeks pre-weaning and 2 weeks post-weaning to reduce the stress on calves at weaning time. Eligible suckler calves are those born between 1stJuly 2022 and 30th June 2023. 

The rate of payment is €35 per calf for a maximum of 40 calves.

Applications 

Applications are open online at www.agfood.ie and will remain open until midnight on 12th September. Applicants may apply themselves online or they can get their approved FAS adviser to apply. It is important to note that there is no late application facility with this scheme so 12th September will be the final date for applications

Once you make an application it will be up to you to make contact with the vet (PVP) to arrange the IBR blood testing. The vet will then send the samples to one of the DAFM approved labs.

Because DAFM hope to make payments for the scheme before the end of 2023, both actions of meal feeding and IBR testing will have to be undertaken by 1st November.

For more episodes from the Beef Edge podcast, visit the show page at:
https://www.teagasc.ie/thebeefedge  

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