The purpose of the fodder scheme is to provide assistance to certain livestock farmers who face significant winter fodder problems. These problems have arisen due to the prolonged wet weather conditions experienced during the 1998 growing and fodder saving season. It is recognised that farmers on peat or heavy clay soils in certain areas were particularly badly affected.
Financial assistance under the fodder scheme is being made available to all sheep farmers with mountain grazings, suckler cow producers and small dairy farmers, with milk quotas of less than 35,000 gallons, in the worst affected areas in Counties Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo.
There are approximately 15,000 sheep farmers with mountain grazing. A payment of £4 per ewe or hogget on up to 75 sheep per flock will be made. Payment on suckler cows will be confined to farmers in designated district electoral divisions in the 12 counties. It is estimated that there are more than 31,000 applicants for suckler cow premium in the areas affected — more than 5,000 of these are also small scale milk producers. A fodder payment of £40 per cow up to a ceiling of £300 per applicant, equivalent to 7.5 cows, will be made. Small-scale dairy farmers located in the DEDs designated in the 12 counties will qualify for a fodder payment of £30 per 1,000 gallons of quota up to a ceiling of £300 or 10,000 gallons. Dairy farmers with a quota of up to 35,000 gallons in 1998 will qualify.
The areas in question were identified as the worst affected areas in a Teagasc survey completed in September. While some farms outside the designated areas have fodder difficulties, these farms are generally located in geographical areas where fodder is more readily available. Accordingly, it is not planned that such farmers will be included in the scheme. It should be noted that the payment on sheep is based on mountain grazings as per the sheep headage scheme and goes far beyond the 12 counties listed.
The primary objective of the scheme is to give immediate help to farmers in the worst affected areas and the approach which I have adopted is the best way of achieving that objective.