Niall Collins
Question:485. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine for an update on a query (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21626/24]
View answerTuesday, 14 May 2024
Questions (485)
Written answers
The objective of the CAP Strategic Plan Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme (DBWS) is to incentivise the use of genetic tools to improve the beef merit of progeny from dairy herds. Breeding with high Dairy Beef Index (DBI) sires has established progeny performance benefits as measured by their Commercial Beef Value (CBV). The scheme supports the use of the Dairy Beef Index to produce calves with a higher Commercial Beef Value.
The DBWS is a breeding measure which supports farmers using genotyped and genetically superior beef sires for breeding dairy beef calves. Participants will be required to have calves born on their holding in the scheme year which must be sired by a 3 or 4 or 5-star stock bull or from 3 or 4 or 5-star AI straws or a mixture of both to be eligible for payment in each scheme year for which an application has been submitted.
The scheme runs from 2024 to 2027 inclusive. Scheme year one is in respect of calves born between 01 January 2024 and 31 December 2024, and each succeeding scheme year is from 01 January to 31 December for calves born in that calendar year. Payments will issue each year in March following the scheme year end.
Farmers who satisfy the scheme requirements will receive a payment of €20 per eligible calf up to a maximum of 50 calves per holding.
Applications for the scheme opened on 21 March 2024 and can be lodged through agfood.ie until the closing date of 15 May 2024 at 23.59hrs. There is a 25-calendar day period after the 15 May 2024 closing date for the acceptance of late applications - however, deductions to payments at a rate of 1% per working day in respect of the scheme will apply to applications which are received during this period.
The objective of this scheme is to encourage the use of better beef sires on dairy cows. The ultimate beneficiaries will be those who purchase the resultant calves, which will have significantly better beef attributes than heretofore.