# The BISS active farmer test: how to check your own number *Published 2026-09-28 by FarmAI Ireland* To get BISS you have to pass the Department of Agriculture's active farmer check. Right now that means a stocking rate of at least 0.10 livestock units per hectare. Or proof of other farming activity, such as cutting silage or growing crops. The IFA now wants that bar raised. Here is how to work out your own number before anyone moves it. **Where this stands in September 2026:** nothing has changed. The 0.10 threshold still applies for the 2026 scheme year. What has changed is the conversation. The IFA is now arguing in public that the bar is too low, and the next CAP starts on 1 January 2028. --- ## What does "active farmer" mean right now? [BISS](/schemes/biss) is the payment everything else hangs off. You cannot apply for the schemes that sit under it unless you declare yourself an active farmer. Teagasc sets out the two routes. You either hold a minimum stocking level of 0.10 livestock units per hectare, or you carry out other farming activity. The Department's own guidance lists those alternatives as producing crops, cutting hay or silage, topping, and maintaining hedges and ditches. Note the word "or". You do not need stock to pass. You need activity, and you need to be able to show it. The same 0.10 figure does more work than most people realise. It is also the floor for the [Areas of Natural Constraints](/read/anc-criss-sheep-welfare-grants-ai-finds) scheme and the Organic Farming Scheme. Under the Eco-scheme, the extensive livestock practice runs from 0.10 up to 1.4 livestock units per hectare. So one number gates several payments at once. ## How do you work out your own stocking rate? Multiply your animals by their livestock unit value, add them up, and divide by your forage hectares. These are the coefficients the Department has used since 2023: | Animal | Livestock units | |---|---| | Dairy cow | 1.0 | | Other cows, 2 years and over | 0.8 | | Heifers, 2 years and over | 0.8 | | Male bovine, 2 years and over | 1.0 | | Bovine, 1 to under 2 years | 0.7 | | Bovine, under 1 year | 0.4 | | Equine animals | 0.8 | | Ewe or goat | 0.1 | | Deer | 0.3 | Take 40 hectares. You need 4.0 livestock units to clear 0.10 per hectare. Five suckler cows does it. So does 40 ewes. So does ten weanlings under a year old. That is a low bar, and it is meant to be. Most working farms clear it without ever thinking about it. Eighty suckler cows on 60 hectares comes out around 1.07 livestock units per hectare. That is more than ten times the minimum. You do not have to do the sum yourself. The Stocking Density Panel on [MyAgfood](https://myagfood.ie), the Department's online portal, shows your own figure broken down week by week. It gives you an annual stocking rate, with a green tick or a "Not met" beside it. ANC participants also see a separate seven-month rate, because that scheme asks for both. If you have no animals registered, both will show as not met. That is your signal to claim a different route. ## Which year's stocking counts? This is the bit worth knowing before the housing decisions get made. Most farmers pass the check on the previous year's stocking rate. The animals you are carrying this autumn are the ones that feed into next year's application. You can use the current year's figure instead. But the Department's guide to the panel warns that doing so may hold the payment until March of the following year. If you are thin on stock now and planning to buy in spring, that trade-off is worth knowing about. Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon set out the principle in June. The check, he said, "verifies that an agricultural activity is being carried out by an applicant, with minimum levels of activity specified and required." ## What if you have no stock? You claim one of the other activities. Plenty of farmers do. In the 2026 BISS applications, 8,691 claims were made by a route other than the previous year's stocking rate. The Farmers Journal reported the breakdown. It included 1,847 growing eligible crops, 1,539 making hay or silage, 327 forestry, 296 maintaining hedges and ditches, and 278 topping grassland. The Department also allows more than one activity to be claimed together. Keep the evidence — dated photographs, contractor dockets, bale counts, spray records. A claim you cannot stand over is worse than no claim. ## What is the IFA actually asking for? The Farmers Journal reported on 23 September that IFA president Francie Gorman had criticised the current rules. They are "rewarding people for owning land, not farming it," he said. CAP income supports are going out "for doing very little." He floated two options. Re-couple payments to output. Or set a minimum output threshold, per farm or per hectare, which he said "almost solves the problem." Time spent working the farm could form part of the test too. IFA policy executive Shane Whelan said there is "general agreement" that the 0.1 livestock unit per hectare threshold is "too low." Be clear about what this is. It is a farm organisation opening a debate, not a DAFM proposal and not an EU one. No figure has been put on the table. No consultation has opened. But this is a farm organisation arguing for a tighter test on its own members. That is how these things usually start. ## Who would a tighter test catch? Not the commercial dairy or beef farm. They clear 0.10 by a distance. It would land on whoever sits near the floor. Farmers winding down towards retirement. Part-time operators with a small run of cattle and an off-farm job. Anyone holding ground on a maintenance-only claim — topping, hedges, the bare minimum to stay eligible. The money at stake is real for exactly those farms. Teagasc's National Farm Survey put average income on cattle rearing farms at €24,061 in 2025, after a 74% jump. Teagasc credits that jump to output prices, and prices go both ways. The thinner the trading income, the more the payment is holding the farm up. Whether that is fair is a political argument, and we are not going to settle it here. What you can do is know where you stand before the argument reaches a rule. ## Where does the EU fit into this? The Commission's post-2027 proposal is a separate track. It starts on 1 January 2028 and runs to the end of 2034. Its published questions and answers do not set out a new active farmer definition. What it does set out is mandatory degressivity and capping, so larger farms take a smaller share. The direction of travel is redistribution, not a stricter eligibility gate. Ireland's own negotiating position and the wider reform timeline are covered in our piece on the [2026 CAP changes](/read/2026-cap-reform-irish-farm-payments). ## What to do before the 2027 application opens 1. Log into MyAgfood and open the Stocking Density Panel. Note your annual figure. 2. If you are under 0.10, decide now which activity route you will claim. 3. Start a folder for the evidence. Dates on photographs, dockets from contractors. 4. If your stock numbers are dropping this winter, talk to your adviser before you sell. Ten minutes on the panel now beats a query letter in June. ## Frequently asked questions **What is the minimum stocking rate for BISS in Ireland?** 0.10 livestock units per hectare — roughly one ewe per hectare. It is the same floor used for the Areas of Natural Constraints scheme and the Organic Farming Scheme. **Can I get BISS with no animals at all?** Yes. Other farming activity satisfies the check instead. Growing crops, cutting hay or silage, topping, or maintaining hedges and ditches all count. In 2026, 8,691 claims went through a route other than the previous year's stocking rate. **Is the active farmer test actually changing?** Not as of September 2026. The IFA has called for a tighter definition and suggested output-based options. But no proposal has been published by DAFM or the European Commission, and no figure has been named. ## Where to get help Your Teagasc adviser is the first call. That goes double if your stocking rate is close to the line, or you are unsure which activity to claim. For the panel itself or a query on your own figure, the Department's Direct Payments Helpdesk is 057 867 4422, or email directpaymentscorrespondence@agriculture.gov.ie. ## The bottom line The active farmer test is 0.10 livestock units per hectare, or evidence of other farming activity. Check your figure on MyAgfood this week, and keep the evidence for whichever route you claim. The rule has not moved yet. The IFA has just argued that it should. --- ## Sources - [DAFM — A Guide to the Stocking Density Panel for Farmers](https://assets.gov.ie/233402/785ab6fa-a25e-4e0c-a393-49e87d748a05.pdf) — Source of the livestock unit coefficients used from 2023, the 0.10 LU/ha minimum applying to ANC and the Organic Farming Scheme, the Eco-scheme extensive livestock bands, the prior-year versus current-year stocking choice, and the Direct Payments Helpdesk number - [Teagasc — Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS)](https://teagasc.ie/rural-economy/rural-development/equine/grants-and-schemes/basic-income-support-for-sustainability-biss/) — Source of the active farmer wording, the 0.10 livestock units per hectare threshold, and the consequence of declaring yourself not active on the BISS application - [Irish Farmers Journal — 8,691 non-stocking rate claims for BISS active farmer checks (1 June 2026)](https://www.farmersjournal.ie/news/news/8-691-non-stocking-rate-claims-for-biss-active-farmer-checks-917832) — Source of the 2026 breakdown of alternative active farmer claims and of Minister Martin Heydon's description of how the check works - [Irish Farmers Journal — Gorman backs tighter active farmer definition (23 September 2026)](https://www.farmersjournal.ie/news/news/gorman-backs-tighter-active-farmer-definition-933972) — Source of IFA president Francie Gorman's remarks on coupling payments to output and minimum output thresholds, and of IFA policy executive Shane Whelan on the 0.1 LU/ha threshold - [European Commission — Questions and answers on the CAP post-2027 proposal](https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/media/news/questions-and-answers-cap-post-2027-proposal-2025-07-23_en) — Source of the 1 January 2028 start date, the seven-year term to 2034, and the mandatory degressivity and capping in the Commission's proposal - [Teagasc — National Farm Survey 2025 results (6 July 2026)](https://teagasc.ie/news--events/news/teagasc-confirms-further-growth-in-farm-incomes-across-all-systems-in-2025/) — Source of the 2025 average family farm income figures by system, quoted here for what a payment cut would mean on a cattle rearing farm --- *Source: [FarmAI Ireland](https://farmai.ie/read/biss-active-farmer-test-stocking-rate-check)*