{"id":46313,"date":"2026-08-22T00:22:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T04:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/08\/22\/rise-in-farm-payment-schemes-to-tackle-fodder-shortages\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T00:22:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T04:22:51","slug":"rise-in-farm-payment-schemes-to-tackle-fodder-shortages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/08\/22\/rise-in-farm-payment-schemes-to-tackle-fodder-shortages\/","title":{"rendered":"Rise in farm payment schemes to tackle fodder shortages"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Payments given to farmers under a number of schemes will see an increase from 70% to 75% as part of a plan to alleviate the effects of fodder shortages.<\/p>\n

The Department of Agriculture has said both the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability scheme (CRISS) will see the increase, as well as the Eco Scheme.<\/p>\n

Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon said that rules around the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) will also see more flexibility and will now allow for the mowing of almost 26,000 hectares of land from now, rather than from 31 August.<\/p>\n

He told RT\u00c9’s Drivetime that today’s announcement will improve cash flow for farmers, especially those who are facing “a challenging time”.<\/p>\n

“My department administers \u20ac1.6 billion worth of payments over the course of the next four months that farmers expect at a certain set time for the different activities that they’re carrying out. And I can’t do anything to undermine the scheduling of them or to delay in any way those payments,” he said. <\/p>\n

The change comes as some parts of the south and southeast are reporting severe shortages, with some areas seeing less than 10% of their normal grass growth rates.<\/p>\n

The National Fodder and Food Security Committee met in Co Carlow to outline data on the situation to different farming bodies.<\/p>\n

“Farm payments are a critical element of farmers’ income. The increase in the advance payment rate will assist farmers with cash flow, which is of critical importance, particularly to those farmers who are experiencing higher costs at present,” Minister Heydon said.<\/p>\n

\"Minister
Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon said the changes will see more flexibility for farmers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dr Stan Lawlor, Director of Knowledge Transfer at Teagasc was among those at the meeting, following a survey from the group in which around 500 farmers across Ireland took part in.<\/p>\n

“It’s showing that about 30% of farmers overall in the country are at high risk in relation to potentially having to eat into their fodder supplies and potentially be short for the winter ahead.<\/p>\n

“That is more acute, as we know in the regions most affected, which are in the southeast of the country.”<\/p>\n

Dr Lawlor said that his “key message” to farmers is to engage with supports if they have not do so already, including seeking advice around fodder budgeting and diets.<\/p>\n

He also said farmers affected should “act early” in terms of sourcing feed.<\/p>\n

“It is a stressful time with high workloads on farmers as well, and there are supports available both with Teagasc and elsewhere.”<\/p>\n

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Read more: <\/b>40% of farmers have significant winter fodder deficit – IFA
Govt ‘won’t be found wanting’ on fodder supports – Heydon<\/p>\n

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President of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association Dennis Drennan urged the Government to organise a transport scheme so that parts of the country with shortages can be supplied from areas where there is stock.<\/p>\n

“There are parts of the country, mainly on the western seaboard that have the potential to grow more fodder because the moisture deficits are nowhere near where it is in the southeast.<\/p>\n

“So what we need to do is get that fodder moving and give them the opportunity to grow more to help their fellow farmers.”<\/p>\n

President of the Irish Farmers’ Association Francie Gorman described the Government’s announcement as “underwhelming” and said there was an expectation that an advance on payments would be fast-tracked.<\/p>\n

“That didn’t happen, and that would have been a real help to the cash flow situation in farms at the moment.<\/p>\n

“I think we already understand the problem that we have and that is that farmers are eating into their winter stocks in a huge way with no prospect of really making them up.<\/p>\n

“So I think that we need to see how we can conserve the stocks we have by stretching them, using probably concentrates and trying to get fodder produced in parts of the country where there may be an opportunity between now and the onset of winter.”<\/p>\n

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Listen: President of the IFA Francie Gorman criticised the Government’s action<\/h3>\n

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Speaking on RT\u00c9\u2019s News at One he said that the announcement represented a poor response to a serious situation.<\/p>\n

“You only have to drive through the countryside to see the problems that farmers are going to face between now and the onset of winter, and possibly later on, when we get into the spring,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said Minister Heydon did not rule out further supports, calling for action.<\/p>\n

“What we need is action now. That’s why we need the incentivisation of the use of concentrates at farm level and we have plenty of it after the harvest just concluded,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There’ll be recommendations from the Fodder and Food Security Committee today put to the minister and he will have to consider them in terms of supporting the fertilizer strategy and other supports that would be needed.”<\/p>\n

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Payments given to farmers under a number of schemes will see an increase from 70% to 75% as part of a plan to alleviate the effects of fodder shortages. The Department of Agriculture has said both the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability scheme (CRISS) will see the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}