National Beef Welfare Scheme (NBWS).

Is it in the T&C's that weaning has to be done by November as think it was mentioned here ?

I can't see it in the T&C's myself. If it is I'll be giving this scheme a miss as April calving here so don't usually wean until Christmas.

I was going to just do the meal feeding and take the 10% penalty on the IBR.

you pay the vet and you get the money when the scheme pays out

Instead of venting here, I emailed the scheme bws@agriculture.gov.ie raising the issues around later calving herds that wean later, not being eligible for the scheme.

We have to remember that approx 1 million calves we registered from late March to the end of June. Sucklers would make up a big number of these and no facilitiating these is a serious oversight by DAFM. The more emails they get the more they have to consider change going forward. I would encourage others similar to my system that are not eligible to do so

I got a reply that it was being passed up the line and will be replied to.

It's the late spring 2023 born are the issue. If they follow the same dates next year, calves born April to June 2023 will not be eligible.

We have to remember the key metric that the Icbf uses is the 200 day weight as the standard this is where they see the median weaning age. So we have a welfare scheme which is promoting weaning of suckler calves from 120 days to 180 days. Some fantastic joined up thinking

So you buy the ration as per the scheme dates and wean when it suits you. If it dose not suit you forget about it. Lads always see the problem not the solution.

Talking to a kad today that will have a herd test in ten days time. He was all over the place about the IBR. All he has to do is check if his herd test date will be applicable. If not move the test on. Get the vet to take the bloods.

If it suits use it if not do not

But my question still stands - is it in the T&C's that weaning has to be done by November ?

I was asking a question and not venting anything

Why do you have late born calves in the first place? Calves should be born in february and early march in a six week period so that they can be all treated as one group and take advantage of the full grazing season. The department is only incentivizing best practice by rewarding those that are doing things right. Remove the bull or stop using AI after a certain date and there will be no late calves.

It's says all actions have to be completed by November 1st. That's meal feeding pre and post weaning coupled with the IBR testing

This is page 10 of the terms and conditions

From my reading of the terms it’s just the blood test that is required by 1st November. That date is a called out in the IBR section. But not in the meal feeding section.

If you look at the individual section the 1st of November is mentioned in the IBR sectio specifically. No date is mentioned in the meal feeding section just that meal is need 2 weeks before and 4 weeks after.

I had thought the same as you initially but logically it’s just the IBR as from a welfare point of view weaning early for a scheme makes no sense even.

Agree clarification might come, I might apply and just do the meal feeding. It will buy a 1/3 of a tonne of organic feed……. But sher every little helps.

Reading the conditions of a department scheme requires legal training to properly interpret it. I haveinga a similar issue with the TAM's scheme at present in it's interpretation.

However I expect that the reality is if your paper work is correct ( receipts for ration purchased before November) you will get paid unless you get an inspection on November 2nd which is unlikely.

Actually this scheme will be similar to the silage scheme the inspections will be afterwards. Even with April/May born calves I would have weaning completed by November and use any extra condition on the cows to save wintering costs and molly coddle the weanlings to achieve targets. At weight of 250+ ( which they should be) milk from cows should be supplying limited thrive.

The only real sting would be if you normally sell off the cow in late November/ December.

On your system of late calving, I tend to agree with it. With rota and crypto, the hassle of indoor calving, the cost if straw in non tillage areas, the requirements for quality silage if cows are feeding calves indoors for 6-10+ wees and the low profitability of sucklers anyway it probably makes little difference margin wise to your system if you take roto and crypto costs and extra work into account

No it’s twenty individual samples and they’re all tested separately, there’s no pooling of bloods

Tried to sign up there. Selected which scheme I wanted but can’t click anything after that

anybody else have a similar problem?

march and april is when you get the scours in my experience . wouldnt like to have too many cows out in march in the west of ireland