Forestry plans for land

proteuspal

Hi all. my query is about inheriting some land and I'm considering planting about 10 hectares of it. Please note, I have never had the herd number in my name. Land currently rented to a 3rd party.
I have read about the forestry grants and premiums and that side is fairly self explanatory.
My main query relates to how forestry integrates with the basic payment scheme (BPS). I have read every article from Teagasc that I can find online about this and it doesn't answer my query. Teagasc say that you can now continue to retain the BPS payment on the planted land, as long as that land was in receipt of a single payment scheme payment back in 2008. Now this is where my main query is-the land definitely was paid as part of the SPS back in 2008, but it was the 3rd party who would have been in receipt of the payment, not me...

1) can anyone advise the best way forward-in this case, would it be possible to obtain BPS alongside the forestry? Once I inherit, would I need to first farm the land as normal for a couple of years in order to obtain the BPS under my own name first, then look at forestry after that? it looks to me that if a lad has been farming the plot for a few years, is claiming BPS, he can plant that plot and then gain the forestry grants/premiums in addition to BPS, so as a new owner of the plot, I would see it as fairly unfair that someone else can get the BPS but I could not. Can someone clarify?

2) I noticed that they have removed the need to retain 10% of the land in agriculture, so clearly there is a drive to allow lands to be used for forestry purposes. If they plan to allow BPS to be paid on afforested lands, but have removed the need to retain 10% of land in other forms of agriculture, then surely there is then no need to meet the criteria for having a herd number, i.e. the need for cattle crushes etc?

thanks to all

epfff

proteuspal wrote: »

Hi all. my query is about inheriting some land and I'm considering planting about 10 hectares of it. Please note, I have never had the herd number in my name. Land currently rented to a 3rd party.
I have read about the forestry grants and premiums and that side is fairly self explanatory.
My main query relates to how forestry integrates with the basic payment scheme (BPS). I have read every article from Teagasc that I can find online about this and it doesn't answer my query. Teagasc say that you can now continue to retain the BPS payment on the planted land, as long as that land was in receipt of a single payment scheme payment back in 2008. Now this is where my main query is-the land definitely was paid as part of the SPS back in 2008, but it was the 3rd party who would have been in receipt of the payment, not me...

1) can anyone advise the best way forward-in this case, would it be possible to obtain BPS alongside the forestry? Once I inherit, would I need to first farm the land as normal for a couple of years in order to obtain the BPS under my own name first, then look at forestry after that? it looks to me that if a lad has been farming the plot for a few years, is claiming BPS, he can plant that plot and then gain the forestry grants/premiums in addition to BPS, so as a new owner of the plot, I would see it as fairly unfair that someone else can get the BPS but I could not. Can someone clarify?

2) I noticed that they have removed the need to retain 10% of the land in agriculture, so clearly there is a drive to allow lands to be used for forestry purposes. If they plan to allow BPS to be paid on afforested lands, but have removed the need to retain 10% of land in other forms of agriculture, then surely there is then no need to meet the criteria for having a herd number, i.e. the need for cattle crushes etc?

thanks to all

Bps is not attached to land its attached to you herd no. You need land to draw it down. The fact that you do not have a herd no. Or bps entitlements would suggest to me that none of the above will relate to you