01 April 2025
Actions for the new National Sheep Welfare Scheme revealed
Details of the new €22 million National Sheep Welfare Scheme were released yesterday, March 31, by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Consisting of mandatory (category A) and voluntary (category B) actions, participants must complete two of the former and one of the latter to be eligible for the full rate of payment of €13/ewe.
Category A comprises mandatory actions, each worth €4 per breeding ewe, from which applicants must select two of the three available options. Category B comprises voluntary actions, each worth €5 per breeding ewe, from which applicants must select one of the two available options.
When applying for the scheme – either themselves or through an approved FAS advisor on the DAFM’s agfood.ie portal – which closes to applications at 23:59 on May 15, 2025, the participating farmers must indicate which options they intend to carry out by selecting either two category A actions worth a combined €8/ewe, or selecting two category A actions and one category B action worth a combined €13 per ewe.
Table 1: Mandatory and voluntary actions of the National Sheep Welfare Scheme
| Category A Actions (Mandatory) | € | Category B Actions (Optional or Voluntary) | € |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1). Shearing | 4 | 1). Footbathing | 5 |
| 2). Body condition scoring ewes and appropriate follow-on management (as appropriate) | 4 | 2) Plunge dipping to control external parasite | 5 |
| 3). Clostridial vaccination of ewes (or lambs if ewes are already vaccinated) | 4 |
To be eligible for payment in 2025, actions selected at application stage must be completed by 17 October 2025. Where this timeframe is too tight, farmers have the option to choose a later date of 28 November 2025, but this will result in payments being under the scheme being pushed out until January 2026 at the earliest.
Like other sheep schemes, the reference number of eligible animals is based on the average of the three sheep census returns for eligible breeding ewes declared by the applicant for the years 2022 to 2024.
Commenting on the opening of the National Sheep Welfare Scheme for 2025, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon TD said: “It allows farmers to carry out an additional action to maximise their scheme payments.
“The increased scheme funding provided in Budget 2025 gives sheep famers an opportunity to drawdown €13 per eligible ewe, bringing targeted payments to €25 per ewe in 2025 when combined with the Sheep Improvement Scheme.
“The overall level of support is now two and half times greater than the payment in 2022 and is the highest payment rate ever provided to enhance animal health and welfare in our vitally important sheep sector.”
Reminding farmers that the 2025 National Sheep Welfare Scheme is a separate scheme to the Sheep Improvement Scheme and must be applied for separately, Minister Heydon added that the National Sheep Welfare Scheme consists of “straightforward measures that will encourage uptake and are applicable to all types of sheep enterprises”.
“It is practical to implement on all sheep enterprises regardless of flock size or production system, including those not currently participating in the existing Sheep Improvement Scheme. I want to see a thriving sheep sector and am determined to provide the necessary supports to maintain producer confidence in the future viability of sheep farming. These supports demonstrate the continuing commitment of the government to the sheep sector,” Minister Heydon concluded.
For further details on the 2025 National Sheep Welfare Scheme, visit here.