Farmers can 'use prior year stocking' for Active Farmer claim - DAFM
Farmers can use "prior year stocking as their Active Farmer claim" or "claim multiple activities" where appropriate.
That's according to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon.
Minister Heydon said: "The Active Farmer check implemented by my department in the current Common Agricultural (CAP) programme verifies that an agricultural activity is being carried out by an applicant, with minimum levels of activity specified and required."
The minister made the comments in response to a query from Sinn Féin TD, Martin Kenny, on the number of Basic Income Sustainability Support (BISS) applications by activity class.
Minister Heydon shared the below table, outlining the number of BISS applications by activity classes for 2026.
| Active Farmer Claim | Number of Claims |
| Forestry Eligible | 327 |
| Growing eligible crops | 1,847 |
| Keeping horses/donkeys/deer | 457 |
| Keeping sheep/cattle/goats | 3,940 |
| Maintaining landscape features e.g. cutting hedges, cleaning ditches | 296 |
| Making hay/silage/haylage | 1,539 |
| Share Farming (applicable only to applicants with tillage land parcels) | 7 |
| Topping | 278 |
The Active Farmer Check was first introduced in 2023 to ensure that any individual who receives scheme payments is the "person farming the land".
Stocking
Separately, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) highlighted that there are a number of different ways that the Active Farmer Check can be met.
These include meeting the minimum stocking level of 0.10 livestock units per hectare.
DAFM outlined that other eligible farming activities range from "producing eligible crops, making hay or silage, maintaining landscape features".
A spokesperson added: "The primary method of confirming a minimum level of activity by applicants is related to production agriculture, for example livestock and crops, but applicants have also qualified based on maintenance activities that the applicant is carrying out on their lands."
According to DAFM, in all cases, the minimum agricultural activity assessment will require applicants "to provide evidence of a meaningful level of activity on lands, whether production- or maintenance-based".
