Margaret Brennan, Assistant Principal Officer for Beef Schemes with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, discusses and explains the 2024 Beef Welfare Scheme on this week’s Beef Edge podcast.
The 2024 Beef Welfare Scheme (BWS) will support farmers in meal feeding suckler calves before and after weaning, and in vaccinating against clostridial diseases and calf pneumonia. Calves eligible to the scheme are those born to eligible suckler cows in the period from July 1st 2023 to 30th June 2024.
While the meal feeding action is mandatory for scheme participants, farmers must indicate that they are selecting the optional vaccination action at application stage if they wish to be considered for payment under this action.
Farmers can then decide during the implementation phase, where appropriate, in consultation with their veterinary surgeon, which disease they wish to target depending on the health status of their herds.
Action 1 – Meal Feeding (Mandatory): the rate of payment is €35 per eligible calf up to a maximum of 40 eligible calves.
Action 2 – Vaccination (Optional): The rate of payment is €15 per eligible calf up to a maximum of 40 eligible calves.
The closing date for applications is 23.59hrs on 24 September 2024.
Further information on the terms and conditions are at:
For further queries email and contact telephone details are: