The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, has announced the start of payment of £51 million in top up premiums to cattle farmers. The payments are made to farmers who have less than 1.4 livestock units per hectare.
Mr Yates said the £40 million Extensification Premium was shared between 70,000 farmers in the past week. A further 20,000 farmers will be paid about £11 million more this week.