Minister McConalogue announces opening of the Low Emission Slurry Spreading Scheme and the Dairy Equipment Scheme as part of TAMS 3

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, announced that the Low Emission Slurry Scheme (LESS), and the Dairy Equipment Scheme (DES) will be the fifth and sixth schemes to open to applications under the new Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3). Both are open for applications from today (Monday 8 May 2023).

TAMS provides funding for capital investments on farms and will be in place for five years with a budget of €370 million:

Tranche 1 of the scheme opened Wednesday 22 February
both the Low Emission Slurry Scheme and the Dairy Equipment Scheme open on 8 May 2023
the remaining four TAMS schemes will open on a phased basis during Tranche 1 which is expected to close on 16 June

Minister McConalogue said:

“I’m very pleased to launch these two very important elements of the TAMS schemes. The Low Emission Slurry Scheme highlights our continued support to assist farmers undertake the necessary investment to upgrade their slurry spreading equipment to meet their environmental commitments. It was taken up hugely by farmers under the previous TAMS and I expect significant interest now also. To incentivise this important technology, we are retaining the standalone investment ceiling of €40,000 per holding and we’re increasing the grant rate from 40% to 60%."

The Minister added:

“The launch of the Dairy Equipment Scheme will also encourage dairy farmers, especially young farmers and new entrants to dairying, with support in meeting capital costs in meeting modern herd management, energy saving, and animal welfare standards required to compete in the sector.

“It is also heavily focussed on environmental investments required on dairy farms. We’ve also increased the grant limit to €90,000 for the eligible farmers.”

Notes

What LESS is

The practice of Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) is an important environmentally sustainable technology that will facilitate Ireland meeting its environmental commitments through reductions in ammonia and other reactive Nitrogen emissions from soil. The practice leads to greater nutrient recovery from slurries and indirectly improved nutrient use efficiency, as well as a reduced dependency on chemical fertilisers.

Investments that are eligible

For LESS, the maximum amount of investment eligible for grant-aid under the Scheme is €40,000 per holding. However, in the case of a joint application by two or more eligible partners under a registered farm partnership, the maximum eligible investment ceilings referred to above shall be increased to €60,000. The investment ceiling under this scheme is NOT subject to the overall TAMS 3 investment ceiling of €90,000 per holding.

List of items for LESS

A list of the eligible investments is detailed in the scheme Terms and Conditions document at Annex B, and include the following:

Mobile Slurry Tank with Attachments such as Trailing shoe with macerator, and Shallow injection with macerator
Retrofit Trailing shoe attachment with macerator to existing tanker, New or retrofit Inlet Choppers, and Flow meters
Umbilical System including Base pump, hose reel and fittings, Lay flat hose and fittings, Trailing Shoe or Shallow Injection attachments, as well as Flow Meter and Retrofit Trailing shoe attachment to existing umbilical system
Hydraulic Motor to substitute PTO Shaft is also available

List of items for DES

A list of the eligible investments is detailed in the scheme Terms and Conditions document at Annex B, and include the following:

Milk Storage and Cooling
Water Heating
backup PTO generator
milk recording equipment
Milking Machine* (see note below)
Auto Washer for milking machine

For DES Grant aid will only be paid on approved, completed and eligible expenditure and shall be paid at the rate of 40% up to the applicable maximum investment ceiling of €90,000 per holding.

Specifications

All department Structural Specifications and notices relevant to this Scheme can be accessed on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine website at: gov.ie - TAMS - Farm Building and Structures Specifications (www.gov.ie).

Queries of a technical nature relating to the specifications should be submitted by email to the following email address tams@agriculture.gov.ie

Annex G lists the contact phone numbers for technical queries.

Grant aid will not be paid for (a) second-hand materials or equipment or (b) ex-demo or (c) work carried out by contractors who do not comply with the tax clearance requirements laid down in paragraph 10 of the scheme.

Only fixed investments constructed/erected/installed on eligible land are eligible for grant aid.

Milking machines (from Terms and Conditions)

Grand aid will only be paid on one robotic milking machine or 10 milking machine units in a herringbone style parlour per holding.

If an applicant has received grant aid for a Robotic Milking Machine under TAMS II or TAMS3, they will not be eligible for further grant aid for this investment item. Please note a registered farm partnership regardless of numbers of partners is deemed one holding.

For milking machine investments only, the following additional requirements apply:

applicants must have at least 10% additional slurry storage above the legal minimum, as set out in clause 5.4 (Investments related to Farm Waste and Farm Nutrient Storage), at date of application for a milking machine. The additional slurry storage must be on either land owned by the applicant, or land that the applicant has on a long-term lease (minimum seven years from date of application)
applications for milking machine investments are open to all farmers with up to 120 dairy cows on their holding on average in the year preceding application. Farmers with more than 120 cows may apply for all other investments in the DES scheme. Approximately 80% of all dairy farms have 120 dairy cows or less