What is the Beef Carbon Reduction (BCR) Scheme

The Beef Carbon Reduction Scheme (BCRS) opened on 1 January 2024. BCRS works on scheme years, with one payment per scheme year:

• Each scheme year will run from 1 January to 31 December.
• Year 2 commenced on 1 January 2025

To receive BCRS 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 which were kept by the business and sent for slaughter in that 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 the number of eligible animals.

BCRS payments will be issued from March of the following year. For example, payments for the 2024 scheme year will be made from March 2025, for the 2025 scheme year they will be made from March 2026.

The maximum number of eligible animals that can receive a payment under BCRS 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

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

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