A top-up to the Farm Sustainability Payment will be issued to NI farmers next month, DAERA has confirmed.

On enquiry, a department spokesperson indicated that unspent funding from the 2025/26 agricultural budget will be paid out over the coming weeks.

“A final payment is due to be issued during October 2026, with the final value confirmed at that time,” the spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal.

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A second payment was also issued to NI farmers last year, which equated to 8% of entitlement values. In 2024, a much smaller payment worth 1% of entitlement values was paid out in October.

Most of the 2025/26 budget was used up in the main run of Farm Sustainability Payments, which were paid out last September.

The payments that were issued by DAERA earlier this month were from the 2026/27 budget.

While the exact value of next month’s payment run is unknown, there is evidence to suggest that there could be a significant level of unspent funding from 2025/26.

In particular, there is likely to be considerable underspend from the first year of the Suckler Cow Scheme.

The latest DAERA figures suggest that only 60% of heifers and 75% of mature cows met the criteria to draw down the £100 payment.

Payment list

Meanwhile, in an update provided to the Stormont Agriculture committee, the department has confirmed its intention to bring forward legislation in November 2026 that will allow it to continue publishing details of farm support payments made to individual NI farmers.

A list of UK CAP beneficiaries, to include NI farmers, is currently published on a website by DEFRA, however, this website is to close from May 2027. In the update to the committee, DAERA said it is still legally required to publish details of farm support payments of over €1,250.