What is the Beef Carbon Reduction (BCR) Scheme

To receive BCR payments, your business must opt-in to the scheme online.

You only need to opt-in once from 2024. If you have opted in you will receive a payment every year from that date and do not need to opt-in each scheme year. However, you will only be eligible for payment from the scheme year in which you opt-in.

Payments will be based on the number of eligible animals that your business kept and sent for slaughter in that scheme year.

We will use information that we hold (mainly on the Northern Ireland Farm Animal Information System – NIFAIS) to decide if your business is eligible for BCR payments, and to decide how many eligible animals that your business kept and sent for slaughter in each scheme year.

BCR payments will be issued from March of the following year. For example, payments for the 2024 scheme year will be made from March 2025.

The maximum number of eligible animals that can receive a payment under BCR is capped at 352,000 per year for the whole of Northern Ireland. If necessary, we will proportionately reduce the number of eligible animals that each business is paid for under this scheme to ensure that this cap is not exceeded.

Policy Context

The United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union has provided Northern Ireland with a unique opportunity to redefine its agricultural policy for the first time in almost 50 years, with the aim of developing a framework that is better suited to local needs and one that will underpin long term sustainability within the agri-food industry.

Following public consultation on proposals for future agricultural policy, the then Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs announced his Future Agricultural Policy Decisions for Northern Ireland in March 2022. A copy of these decisions can be found here:

Future Agricultural Policy Decisions for Northern Ireland | Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (daera-ni.gov.uk)

The Minister’s decisions included the introduction of the BCR scheme as part of a Beef Sustainability Package, with the aim of improving profitability, production, and environmental sustainability. In particular, BCR seeks to reduce emissions and the carbon footprint by slaughtering animals at an earlier age.

The BCR scheme implements this decision and provides a payment to farm businesses to achieve the earlier age at slaughter targets.