(AGENPARL) - Roma, 25 Giugno 2026 - DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND RURAL AFFAIRS
25 June 2026
Payments commence for the first year of the Suckler Cow Scheme
Payments for the first year of the Suckler Cow (SC) Scheme are now underway, DAERA confirmed today.
A key element of the Sustainable Agriculture Programme, the payments commenced from today 25th June 2026, with 98.6% of eligible businesses benefitting from £13.3 million in payments for 133,091 eligible calving events.
The Suckler Cow Scheme forms part of the Beef Sustainability Package and encourages improvements in environmental performance and productivity, increased profitability and reduced emissions.
The scheme enables farm businesses to improve breeding management practices to increase the percentage of eligible calving events that achieve a reduced age at first calving and a reduced calving interval over a four-year phased implementation period.
In Year 1, 85% of eligible farm businesses have opted in to the Scheme and approximately 72% of all calving events have achieved the Year 1 targets.
Following the release of the payments, DAERA Minister Andrew Muir said: "I am very encouraged by the strong uptake in Year 1 of the Suckler Cow Scheme and am pleased to announce the commencement of the first payments under the Scheme to eligible farm businesses. While the principal purpose of the scheme is to deliver environmental benefits, in the current economic climate, these payments will also provide important support to our farm businesses."
Payments will continue to be made to remaining farm businesses upon the completion of validations.
Year 2 of the Suckler Cow Scheme commenced on 1 April 2026.
The maximum age at first calving is now 32 months and the maximum calving interval is 405 days.
