It has been announced by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine that balancing payments to farmers under the 2023 Fodder Support Scheme have begun.
These balancing payments are worth approximately €18.5 million under the 2023 Fodder Support Scheme and will be paid out to over 55,000 eligible participants. Advance payments had been made in December 2022 and so these balancing payments bring the scheme up to date. The scheme was introduced to assist farmers contending with increased agricultural input costs and a reduction in the quantity of fodder produced and conserved over the past year.
The 2023 Fodder Support Scheme continued on from the 2022 scheme to incentivise farmers to grow more silage and hay in 2023. This was done to avoid any animal welfare issues in the country over the winter period. Only successful applicants for the 2022 scheme were eligible to apply for the 2023 Scheme when it was open in November and December 2022.
The overall payment rate of the scheme is €100 per hectare. The maximum area eligible for payment under the scheme is 10 hectares with a potential maximum payment of €1,000. The original 2022 Fodder Support Scheme had a budget of €30 million. The 2023 iteration of the scheme has an additional €23 million, bringing the overall budget of the scheme to €53 million.
Further information on the scheme can be found here.